Harry Potter and the Perfectly Normal Life
by Slurp Lord
Summary: What if Voldemort didn't exist? What if Harry Potter was the only title for Harry Potter? What if he had no scar? What if he had a sister? Are you tired of exciting books full of Harry going through dangerous tasks like fighting dragons, giant spiders, and the greatest dark wizard of all time numerous times? Of course you are! This is Harry Potter in the mundane!
1. Lily and James

A/N:

This is my first ever fan fiction. I'm hoping to make this last for a long time. Not everything I have in plan for the story is set in stone, though. If you review and give me plot ideas that I like, I will include them. Please give me any feedback and criticisms so I can try and make the story as good as I can.

Also, this first chapter is purely Lily and James. All of the other chapters will be half as long as this one is. Starting with Chapter 2, you'll be reading about Harry.

P.S. I did take a little bit of inspiration from Destinies Reversed, but for except for taking some of that stories ideas, this story is completely and one hundred percent written by me.

* * *

The year was 1971. Lily Evans was sleeping peacefully in her bedroom on the night after her eleventh birthday. On the other side of the room was her older sister, Petunia who was lying in her bed attempting, but failing, to find sleep. Sleep evaded her due to the relentless barrage of thoughts invading her head.

 _Severus. Severus Snape. Who the hell is he to take Lily from me? What a stupid name, Severus. Oh I'd like to sever his stupid greasy head._ Petunia was unable to cope with the fact that her precious little sister would be flooding of with Severus to some stupid school for magic. And she wouldn't even get to see her again until Christmas.

Severus had informed Lily weeks ago that she possessed magic in her veins. Since finding out Lily and Severus had spent countless hours conversing about their freakish "gift" while neglecting Petunia.

The only hope that she had that she wouldn't be parted with her sister is the possibility that their parents would agree with their oldest daughter. Sadly for Petunia, this was not the case.

* * *

James Potter gave his hugs and said his goodbyes to his parents before walking off with his trunk to meet up with his best mate, Sirius Black. Together they boarded the Hogwarts Express and James gave one last wave to his parents before setting off to find a compartment together. They trudged all the way up and down the train yet sadly every single compartment was taken. So they found the one with only one ragged looking boy in it and went into introduce themselves.

"Good to meet your acquaintance, I sir James Potter the first introduce myself and my butler Sir Sirius Black," joked James while bowing so low that he could lick the floor. Sirius and James created this tradition years ago not long after they'd first met.

"Oh. . . er. . . Remus Lupin," said the boy and gave slight smile, absorbing the aura of happiness that emanated off of the two friends.

"Sir Lupin it seems that it was no coincidence that placed me and my companion in this compartment with you. We were destined to meet. I swear by the name of my ancestors that I shall never truly live until I rip that hollowness from behind your eyes and replace it with the everlasting need to laugh, prank, and—" James's false poshness was interrupted by a man with a cart full of snacks who opened the door.

"Would you gentlemen like anything?" the man asked.

"I shall not be both—" James started before being interrupted by Sirius who had yet to talk since entering the compartment.

"James, enough. I'll take a 6 cauldron cakes and chocolate frogs," Sirius said while pulling out his money bag. After the man left Sirius divided the snacks between the three of them.

"Er, I can't accept that," said Remus when Sirius offered a third of the snacks to him.

"Look mate, you and us are friends now and you're thinner than than a skeleton. Eat, please," James said to Remus, finally dropping his posh introduction ritual.

Remus gave a genuine grin that James could tell was foreign to the poor boy and accepted the snacks and started eating, happy to have made friends so soon after school started. It wasn't until later that year that James and Sirius learned that Remus was actually a werewolf.

After the Hogwarts Express pulled into Hogsmede Station James, Sirius, and their new friend Remus were rounded towards the edge of a lake as well as all other Hogwarts first years by a rather large man with a bushy face. It'd started raining pretty heavily since the students had last been outside and to their horror, all first years were going to be crossing the lake on boats to get to the school.

Rather reluctantly the students filed into boats and set off for Hogwarts. James, Sirius, and Lupin were joined in their boat by a very small boy who looked terrified of the other boys, for no particular reason it appeared.

James looked over through the heavy rain and saw a very pretty flaming red haired girl sitting in the only visible boat accompanied by a dark haired boy with a rather hook-like nose and a couple of other first years.

When they reached the castle the first years were filed into a line along the wall of the Great Hall to be sorted into houses. An older looking witch in black robes walked up in front of the staff table with a stool and a very ragged looking hat. A brim in the hat opened up and, to the surprise of many of the first years, began to sing.

The hate detailed about the four houses of Hogwarts, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Gryffindor. It informed them that to be sorted, all the students would have to do is put on the hat and wait for their house to be announced.

The witch that brought the Sorting Hat out pulled out a piece of parchment and began calling off names.

The witch called the first name, "Black, Sirius!"

Sirius walked up to the stool and put on the hat. Sirius sat there for a solid two minutes before the brim in the hat opened up again and screamed, "GRYFFINDOR!" The table at the far left of the hall broke into applause as Sirius walked to the end of the table with a smile of relief on his face. James knew Sirius's entire family had been in Slytherin and Sirius didn't like his family too much.

After a few more students had been sorted the witch called out, "Evans, Lily!" James noticed the very pretty redhead he'd seen on another boat walk up and put on the hat which called out, "GRYFFINDOR!" the second the hat touched her head. As Lily walked over to Gryffindor table James made a mental note to remember the name, "Evans, Lily."

Another few students were sorted and the witch called out "Lupin, Remus!" Just as it had with Lily, the instant the hat touched Remus's head it called out "GRYFFINDOR!"

Several more students were sorted and James heard the name he'd been anticipating, "Potter, James!" and was also sorted into Gryffindor. James walked down Gryffindor table to applause and sat down between Sirius and Lily. James decided to wait until after the sorting was finished to introduce himself.

James recognized the terrified boy that they shared a boat with walk up when "Pettigrew, Peter!" was called and sorted into "HUFFLEPUFF!"

James heard a groan of disappointment from Lily when "Snape, Severus!" was sorted into "SLYTHERIN!" Before James could stop himself he found himself saying, "Don't sound so disappointed. Why would you want to be friends with a Slytherin?" Lily gave him a cold glare and didn't say anything. Any hopes James had of striking up a long and prosperous relationship on his first day of Hogwarts immediately left his head.

The next day several students would wander down to the ground and, both new and older students alike, would be surprised to see a new tree planted that started swinging its branches viciously when anyone got near it. It was only a couple of months later when James and Sirius would discover the true reason for the tree's appearance. It was there to guard a secret passageway built specifically for Remus due to his affliction.

In the coming weeks after the start of school James's crush on Lily grew stronger and his dislike for her Slytherin friend, Severus, grew as well. James and Sirius were not afraid of expressing this dislike publically and began torturing Severus any chance they got. Unfortunately for James, this open rivalry only increased Lily's dislike for him. This continued for the next several years that they attend Hogwarts.

When Sirius and James learned of Remus's affliction they set out for countless hours of research in the library for any way to help their friend. Eventually they learned that werewolves could be alleviated from their unfit state of mine during the full moon if around other animals that shared a connection with him.

It didn't take long after that for James and Sirius to realize that animagi would count for this. So the two friends, ignoring the protests of Remus, set out to learn how to become animagi. For weeks they searched any tome in the library for instructions on how this is accomplished to no avail.

Luckily though, James's father gave him his old invisibility cloak and they were able to sneak books out of the restricted section of the library and found their jackpot.

While the book they found didn't contain instructions on how to become an animagus, the book did provide a lot of useful information that would aid them in their experiments that would eventually lead to James and Sirius finally managing to become animagi in their third year.

Sirius became a large black dog and James became a stag. Over time the three friends gave each other nicknames that stuck. James was Prongs, Sirius was Padfoot, and Remus was Moony.

For the rest of the trio's time at Hogwarts they'd go through the Whomping Willow's hidden passage to an abandoned shack on the edge of Hogsmede dubbed by the locals, "The Shrieking Shack" every full moon. Prior to Sirius and James becoming animagi Remus would go to the shack alone and would be responsible for the screams that gave the house its name.

In the trio's fourth year at Hogwarts, James's and Sirius's archnemesis, Severus, would discover the passage under the tree when he followed Sirius go through it from his dormitory window. James was in detention on that day so Sirius was to comfort Remus alone that night.

At the next full moon after that night Severus saw Sirius and James go through the tunnel again from his dormitory window. Severus's suspicions grew.

The day before the next full moon after that one Severus confronted Sirius while James was in detention again. Sirius told Severus the secret of how to get into the hidden tunnel and joked that they hid their mountains of gold and contraband in there. Severus, however, did not catch the sarcasm in Sirius's voice.

When James learned what Sirius had done the next day, he rushed down into the secret passage to find Severus halfway to the Shrieking Shack before he caught up with him. Remus was already there and transformed and Severus would have died had James not saved him.

Over the years Peter Pettigrew became a huge laughing stock for the rest of the Hogwarts students. James, Sirius, and Remus constantly made efforts to defend him when Pettigrew was made fun of in their vicinity. Although the trio weren't really friends with Pettigrew, the small boy became fond of them.

A few weeks left in the fourth year, Severus and Sirius got into an argument in the entrance hall before breakfast. The argument got very heated and both rivals' wands were drawn when Pettigrew stepped in to repay Sirius for being nice to him. Pettigrew started shouting deeply wounding insults at Severus and Severus attacked but his curse barely missed him.

Pettigrew who was both power hungry and not very good at magic cast a dark spell that he didn't fully know how to control. Severus threw a shield charm in between them and the spell backfired, causing an explosion that injured all in the close vicinity and killed both Pettigrew and Severus.

* * *

Nearly a week after the horrible duel between Pettigrew and Severus, a dual funeral was held. It became evident that Lily was Severus's only real friend because the only people crying at the funeral were her, the Snapes, and the Pettigrews.

James, Remus, and Sirius were pretty heartbroken at the death of Pettigrew and, surprisingly to them, Severus. James and Sirius had always dislike Severus and never missed a chance to make fun of and embarrass him. But in all actuality their dislike towards the boy was nothing but James jealousy of his and Lily's relationship and Sirius just following his lead. In the back of their minds however, they always knew Severus was a good guy, even if he was a Slytherin.

James regretted never having made an actual friendship with Pettigrew. He always defended the boy out of mainly pity but never tried to invite him on their adventures throughout the castle and Hogsmede.

James was flooded with not only with grief at the death of his two classmates, but he also felt a pang of sorrow for how hard Lily was taking Severus's death. James walked over to her a little nervously and was both pleased and surprised when she didn't bat his hand away when he placed it on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Lily. I truly am. I know I always bullied and teased Severus but I never wanted him to die. He _was_ a good person. He didn't deserve it."

With another mixture of pleasure and surprise, Lily threw her arms around James and cried into his shoulder. It took James a couple seconds to get over the shock of this and return the hug while gently patting her on the back.

Where this two weeks ago, James would have been overwhelmed at the idea of hugging Lily Evans for what felt like hours, but was likely just a couple of minutes. But James couldn't help be feel like he was taking advantage of her while she was vulnerable.

"Don't go James!" Lily said when he started to pull away from the hug.

Now all James could feel was surprise. Up until this point James didn't know whether she knew who she was hugging. But now he knew that she did and that she still needed a shoulder to cry on.

Lily didn't know why she was allowing herself to be comforted by James Potter, her now deceased best friend's bully. But when he put his hand on her shoulder she felt warmth at the touch, and knew that he meant every word he'd afterwards.

All Lily knew was that she had a shoulder to cry on and someone to give her words of comfort and never wanted to leave the bench. Lily often talked and joked with some of her other classmates but Severus was her only true friend, and now he's gone. She didn't have anyone else to be sincere as the boy who she'd hated for the past three years that was hugging her now.

Eventually she'd managed to gather her wits and emotions and stopped crying, but still not pulling away from James yet. _If it hadn't been for James torturing Severus. . ._ She shuddered as she thought his name. _. . . James would be a good guy. He did always defend Peter from people who bullied him._

A different tone of her voice now entered her head. _But he was just as bad. Severus was in the same boat as Peter., but instead of defending him, James had been the one to bully him._

This internal struggle went on for a while and she finally pulled her head off of James's shoulder.

"I'm sorry about Peter. . . I know you always liked him, even if you two weren't the best of friends" Lily said. Then it was Lily's turn for a surprise when James started crying and put _his_ head on _her_ shoulder.

 _See? The boy_ can _feel sympathy._

 _But he was never too close to Peter. Why is he crying? He could be trying to take advantage of you._

As if her read her mind, James stopped crying and said, "I don't know why I'm crying. I never was too good of friends with Pettigrew, if we could even be considered friends. It's just the fact that two innocent lives are gone for no reason."

James never was good at the whole emotional thing and was sure that Lily would think that he was making things up to take advantage of her. He knew what he'd said sounded cheesy. He just couldn't figure out himself why he was crying and needed to explain to Lily as well as himself in any way that he could.

It still took Lily a while to forgive James for the way he'd treated her best friend before he died but slowly but surely Lily and James became more and more friendly to one another. At first they'd smile when passing each other in the hallways, then evolved to saying hi. It wasn't long before Lily became a permanent part of James's, Sirius's, and Remus's social group.

James and Lily started seeing so much of each other that it eventually got to the point where rumors started going around that the two of them were together, which wasn't true.

"Why do they have to spread those stupid ass rumors everywhere? Can't they just for _once_ ask instead of spreading their suspicions as if it were fact?" said Lily.

"You do spend a lot of time together. Even more than James and I do," Sirius told her.

"That can't be true, you two are inseparable," she said, slightly shocked.

"It's true," Remus put in.

"No way," James said, taking Lily's side. _Hmm. . ._ He thought to himself. _I do take her side a lot. Maybe Sirius is right. . . No way I'm going to let him know that. Oh shit. He_ is _right!_

"See? How can you two know more about how much time we spend together than we are?" Lily shot at Sirius and Remus.

"Whatever you want to believe. But just so you know, most friends don't peck each other on the cheek whenever they part company," Remus told her and James.

"That's a perfectly friendly thing to do. It doesn't mean we're together!" she said, getting slightly upset now.

"You don't peck either of us on the cheek. Why would you peck James on the cheek in a 'perfectly friendly way' and not us if you two weren't together?" said Sirius.

Lily felt her face grow hot. "I. . . Well. . . You two are literally dogs!"

"Whoah! Wait, did you seriously tell her about that?" Sirius snapped at James.

"And I'm a wolf! Not a dog," added Remus indignantly.

It was James's turn to blush. "She's just as much a part of this group as either of you!"

"She's much more of a part of it than either of us," Sirius muttered to Remus with a smirk.

"You know what? Fine. You win," James said.

"So you two are together?" Sirius asked.

"No!" said James and Lily in unison.

"Why not?" Remus asked.

"A boy and a girl can be friends without being romantically involved!" Lily shot at the two of them.

"But James has liked you for years!" said Sirius.

"Really?" Lily asked, her tone changing completely as James's face grew red, but Lily was looking at Sirius.

"You've got to be kidding me! There's no way you _never_ noticed anything!" Remus shot at her.

"I didn't," Lily said quietly.

"Yes. I've liked you since before we were even sorted into our houses," James told her. He now shot a glare at Remus and Sirius that wordlessly told them _get the hell out of here now!_ The two of them walked away smirking at each other.

"Do they always have to gloat when they're right?" Lily asked while they walked away.

"I don't know. I usually don't admit to them when they're right."

* * *

"So do _you_ want to become an animagus? You could be the fourth marauder," James asked Lily who was currently resting her head on his shoulder with his arm on hers.

"Marauder?" Lily asked, looking over at her boyfriend.

"Oh. I guess I forgot to mention that to you. We've been calling ourselves that."

"Is that what you're going to write on the map?"

"How do you know about that?"

"You're not exactly exactly quiet when in the common room."

"Shit. I really wanted that to be a surprise. Ah, well. So?"

"I don't think so. As much as I love you, it's always just been the three of you going off and making the best of Remus's affliction. You don't need to include me in everything, you know?"

"You what?" James's eyes suddenly became watery. They'd been dating for nearly two years now.

"What?"

"You said you love me."

Lily's face suddenly went red. "Oh. I guess it just slipped out. I didn't mean it! Please don't freak out."

"I love you too," James swooped in and kissed her. He put his other arm around her. And they just sat there, locked together for an eternity. Nothing mattered. He didn't care what they were talking about before that. The only words he remembered hearing were "I love you." All that mattered now is that her lips can never move away from his his.

Lily was shocked, yet happy. She'd been thinking it for a while now but didn't dare say it first in case he did that weird boy thing. But no, he felt the same way. And now the only words she'd ever heard are "I love you too."

"Get a room!" Sirius's voice rang through his ears. Sirius was like a brother to James, and he was probably the only person he'd ever have pulled away from Lilly for. "Dumbledore wants to see you," Sirius said while holding out a roll of parchment.

"Dumbledore? Why does the headmaster want to see _me_?" James asked while attempting to take the letter, but Sirius jerked it away from him before he grabbed it.

"Not _you_ , king," snided Sirius, "Lily."

"Oh," was all Lily managed to say. _Is he mad at us for snogging in public? No, that can't be. If that were the case it'd be McGonagall that I'd have to talk to. No_ we'd _have to talk to. After all it is two sets of lips. Unless McGonagall wouldn't want to jeopardize the Quidditch cup, couldn't dare give Quidditch King Potter detention now could she?_

"Hello? Earth to Lilly!" Sirius smirked while waving the letter in front of her face.

Lily took the letter and unrolled it.

 _Lily,_

 _I'd like to invite you to my office for a discussion as well as a possible cup of tea and a few cauldron cakes immediately._

 _Dumbledore_

James read the note too and looked at Lily with one of his eyebrows raised.

"I've never been to Dumbledore's office before. Where do I go?" Lily asked, a slight panic in her voice. What did Dumbledore want with her? Surely she'd done nothing wrong.

"Just take the map. We've already gotten the Headmaster's office on here. We started with that floor. Bye Lovely Lily,"

" _Don't_ call me that. That sounds so stupid," she said but gave her boyfriend a quick peck on the lips, took the map, and left.

" _I solemnly swear I am up to no good,_ " she muttered and tapped it with her wand. Instantly ink appeared on the page and she found two little footsteps labeled "Lily Evans" and then searched the map for Dumbledore's office. At last she found it and headed off.

Lily stopped in front of the stone gargoyle that was supposedly supposed to be the door to Dumbledore's office. She looked at the map again to try and figure out what she was supposed to do but it didn't tell her anything.

" _Mischief managed,_ " she said and tapped it with her wand. The ink dissipated from the page and she was left holding a blank piece of parchment.

Lily took out Dumbledore's letter and tried to hand the it to the gargoyle. It shook its head and simply said, "Password."

"I don't know the password!" Lily shouted at the statue. All it did was shrug. _Why cauldron cakes? Normally people discuss things over tea._ It was worth a shot.

"Er. . . cauldron cakes?" she said to the gargoyle apprehensively. Immediately it jumped aside and revealed a revolving spiral staircase that she stepped on.

When she go to the top she found herself in front of a large double door with a knocker on it and she knocked.

"Come in," said Dumbledore but before she could open the doors they swung open automatically.

"Er. . . hi," Lily wasn't sure what to say and still had no clue why she was there.

The room was filled with moving silver gadgets that she didn't know the purpose of. She also huge bookshelves filled with Dumbledore's personal collection. And with a huge shock, she saw a golden perch with a majestic orange bird on it. The phoenix was beautiful in every way imaginable. It's wings folded in at its sides, occasionally being flexed out. It's long neck leading to a gorgeous head with flames where a human would have hair.

"Ah. I see you've noticed Fawkes. A marvelous bird is he not?" Dumbledore spoke to her as if they were simply old acquaintances that bumped into each other on the street.

"Yes, he's magnificent," Lily said and continued to stare at the bird. After a few seconds she added, "Er. . . sir? Why am I here?"

Dumbledore stared through his half moon spectacles and seemed to be x-raying her. Then he said, "How are you doing, Lily?"

"Wait, what?" Lily asked, startled.

"How are you doing?"

"I'm fine. Why?"

"Are you sure you're fine?"

"Er. . . yes?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"No. I'm not."

"And why is that?"

"I—" tears suddenly stung her eyes, "I miss S— Severus!" she cried and sat down in the chair without invitation and started bawling her eyes out.

"It's only natural. I'm correct in saying he was your best friend?"

"Y— yes," Lily choked.

"Was he ever anything more?" Dumbledore asked gently.

"Wha—? No. We— we were just frie—friends."

"Did you want there to be anything more?"

If any other person were questioning her about this she'd get angry, but something was soothing about Dumbledore's words that made her think that Dumbledore chose every single word carefully and knew the answer to his questions before he answered them. _Is this why I'm here?_

"No," she said honestly. She'd never thought of Severus like that. They were ten when they first met and talking to him was like talking to a brother she didn't know she had. Dumbledore seemed to detect the truth in her words— _word_ , more like.

"Have you talked to anyone about this before?"

"No."

"Why not?

"I don't feel comfortable talking to Remus and Sirius like that an— and I know James never liked S—Severus much so I didn't want to bother him about it."

"Does your boyfriend care about you?"

"Wha—? Of course he does!" Lily said, too startled to remember she was crying.

"How much?"

"What?"

"How much?"

"He— he said he loves me," Lily said, warmth suddenly spreading through her veins.

"Then I'm sure he wouldn't _bothered_ by talking to you about something causing you this much pain. You need to talk to someone who understands you," Dumbledore said.

Lily just stared into those dazzlingly blue eyes that still seemed to be x-raying her. She'd always known how great a man Dumbledore was. What with being the one who defeated Grindelwald and all of those great accomplishments, but she'd never known how. . . _sincere_ , he could be.

 _He's right, you know?_

 _Of course he's right, he's always right. He's fucking Dumbledore!_

 _So what are you going to do?_

 _Talk to James._

 _About what?_

 _You know what!_

 _About what?_

 _Severus!_

Lily was starting to get angry but then realized that she was arguing with herself. _I really need to stop doing that._ "Th—thank you."

"For what?"

"For making me see sense."

"You're very welcome, Lily."

"Is that all, professor?"

"Yes, Lily. You may leave if you wish."

Lily stood up and walked to the door and turned around, "Er. . . bye." Lily felt awkward talking to the headmaster as if he were a just a regular man.

Lily and James spent the rest of that day clinging on to each other as if one of them would fall off a cliff if they didn't. Lily's head was on James's shoulder and she was once again crying just like the night of the funeral.

They were sitting on the edge of James's bed in the boys' dormitory. Although Dumbledore told Lily to talk to James, they hadn't said a word to each other since she'd collapsed into his arms. Although they seemed to be communicating just fine. Every thought Lily had swept through her and into James.

 _You really do love me_ they both thought in unison.

* * *

The end of their seventh year at Hogwarts seemed to creep up on them much faster than they'd expected. Most seventh years were collapsing due to the stress and anxiety of their NEWTS but Lily and James didn't have a problem. Every single moment of what would be anxiety was replaced with compassion the couple had for each other.

The two of them were taking the same classes in all of their years at Hogwarts due to their shared desire to become aurors. Every homework assignment they did together, with the occasional help from Remus who was by far the smartest of the group of four. Everything just seemed to go smoothly. To them, Any moment they were together was a good one. There's no reason to stress.

And while James wasn't made prefect, he and Lily were head boy and girl. On top of that, James wore the Quidditch Captain badge for most of his time at Hogwarts as well.

And in the end it all worked out. They both felt confident going in for the exams, although they were slightly off put by having to sit so far away from each other.

And finally their last day at Hogwarts came to an end. The group of four all packed their trunks and found an empty compartment together on the Hogwarts Express, which they all realized with a pang would be the last time.

Although the couple did know they'd most likely see the castle again were they to have kids. A smile spread across Lily's face. _If our kids inherit just one of James's genes then we can expect to be visiting this school on a weekly basis._

Only a day had passed when James and Lily entered the Ministry of Magic with intentions to begin the process of becoming aurors. James wanted to give it at least a week but Lily couldn't resist getting started right away.

Nearly a couple hours later the left the Ministry with pleased grins on their faces. They were officially going to begin auror training in a month's time.

In the meantime Sirius couldn't resist throwing a graduation party for the four of them. It was to happen at the Potters' residence, which is where Sirius lived due to him running out on his twisted parents years ago.

Everyone apart from Sirius's parents were invited. The party was a massive success, with everyone seeming to not know when enough firewhiskey was enough. After everyone had come up to Lily and James and talked to them about their plans now that they're gone from Hogwarts, Lily found James swigging from a butterbeer bottle.

James set it down when he saw her coming. When he swooped down to give her a kiss, he was surprised when she put a finger on his lips and bit her lip. Suddenly James's heart started pounding. _Holy shit. Does this mean what I think it means?_ If so, he had no objections.

Lily grabbed his hand and started leading him toward the stairs leading up to his room. James constantly looked over his shoulder to make sure no one saw where they were going.

When they reached the bedroom Lily drew out her wand and pointed it at James and a blindfold appeared over his eyes. Catching himself right before he was about to object, she wrapped both arms around his neck and began kissing him. Then she pulled away and began making him walk backwards. When they stopped, James felt two surprisingly strong hands force him to sit on the edge of the bed.

He heard her wand cast another spell but didn't feel anything. Then she cast another. _I can understand Muffliato but what's the other spell?_ He soon understood as he felt the blindfold on his face disappear. As soon as his vision adjusted to the light, his jaw dropped.

Lily was wearing. . . _something_. He didn't know what it was called but he _loved_ it. And he couldn't wait to rip it off of her.

"Just the reaction I was hoping for," she said as she walked towards James, dropped to her knees in front of James and began to undo his belt.

"Are you sure?" James asked.

"Dead sure, _auror._ "

 _She couldn't have said that last word in a more seductive voice._

Sirius was in the middle of a crowd of people and was recounting some of the tales that he had to share from Hogwarts. Most were true but he fabricated a tiny bit to get the laughs that seemed to charge him.

". . . So McGonagall is right on my tail, running faster than anyone her age should be able to. I swear, she was running faster than James has _ever_ flown on his broom and you all know how he's a damn good flier.

"Anyways, she's starting to gain on me and I was about to panic when I saw a thestral fly down. I hopped onto it as fast as I could but right as me and Bonehooves— yes, I took the time to name it—" there was an outburst of laughter at this, "—so anyways, Bonehooves spreads his wings and begins to take off and I'm like, 'Phew! That was close,' but just as I begin to celebrate, I hear a wild screech from below me and I look down, and there's McGonagall hanging onto one of Bonehooves's legs with one hand! So I try to fly as erratically as possible to shake her off—" serious demonstrated this with a tiny doll he summoned to an outburst of applause, "—and she just won't budge! So I know what I have to do. I reached into my pocket and pull out my magic mirror and contacted James, asking for him to come save me. And in no time at all I see a window burst open from Gryffindor tower and there's James pelting towards me on his Nimbus. So I timed it, and then I jumped off of Bonehooves and James catches me on his broom and we shoot to safety through the window James shattered. But as we're headed down for lunch, We see the doors to the Entrance Hall burst open and there's McGonagall riding Bonehooves pelting towards us! And in that moment, I'd known it was hopeless. I got on my knees and put my hands on the back of my head— it's what those muggle aurors make you do— and accepted defeat. And all of that because I'd told her it's LeviOsa, not LeviosA." Another outburst of laughter greeted this and James walked over, looking far too happy.

"Ah, Prongs! I was just telling our guests the one about the Bonehooves incident."

"Ah, yes Padfoot. That was quite the, er, adventure!"

"It certainly was!"

The rest of the party was spent with the crowd of guests laughing at Sirius's outlandish stories. But just as Sirius finished his last story, James caught the attention of everyone in the room.

"Seriously, Sirius, where do you come up with these stories?" A small chuckle washed through the crowd. "Anyways, I think I can speak for all of us when I say that our seven years at Hogwarts have been some of the best of our lives. But they're about to get even better. Now we're fully trained witches and wizards with full authority to hex each other whenever we want." Another small chuckle washed through the crowd. "But now everyone in this room is no longer a student. We're adults. We're about to step out into life and create lessons of our own.

"But I have to stop the laugh train here. As many of you may have recalled from reading the _Prophet_ , not everyone graduated from Hogwarts. Indeed, there are two people who should be in this room right now but aren't. I am of course speaking of Peter Pettigrew and Severus Snape. I must admit that I never liked Severus that much, but deep down I'd always known he was a good person, and a good friend based as to what my lovely girlfriend, Lily, has told me. But I'd been a fool, an idiot. I still am and will most likely always be, but I think I've improved. I think I'm a better person now.

"'But what could have possibly been wrong with our precious James Potter?' you may ask. My answer to that is everything. But I was a bully. I was a fucking prick. I'd tortured Severus, teased him and cursed him any chance I got and he never deserved it. But he's gone. And I'll never get the chance to make amends. And sadly he never got the chance to be the best goddamned wizard Slytherin house has ever had. He would have been. Severus _was_ a great guy, even if I was too stupid, arrogant, and blind to see it.

"As for Peter Pettigrew, I haven't got much to say. That boy was always shy. He'd always been picked on, like I did to Severus, but Pettigrew didn't deserve it either. And I'd actually been able to see that. Whenever Anyone picked on Pettigrew me, Padfoot, and Moony were always there to defend him. Although we were never really friends with the poor boy, we still liked him.

"And now, I'd like to ask we all take a minute of silence for Peter Pettigrew and Severus Snape, who should be here celebrating with us."

A minute later James found his way to Lily who head tears running down her face and punched him in the chest when he got near.

"What was that for?" James asked calmly, already knowing the answer.

"For making me all depressed on what should have been a happy occasion!" Lily choked.

"It had to be said."

"I know," she wiped her eyes and sank into his arms.

"Thank you," James said, tears now staining his eyes.

"For what?" Lily asked in bewilderment.

"For forgiving me."

* * *

After James and Lily returned to the Potter house after their first day of auror training, they sank into the couch with their heads leaning against each other with grins on their faces. Lily was beginning to fall asleep after a long day of intense training when James suddenly stood up.

"What's wrong?" she asked him.

"Nothing. Nothing in the slightest," James answered suspiciously. "Wait here."

James came down stairs nearly ten minutes later and sat down next to Lily who jerked awake.

"What was that?" she asked.

"I needed to get something," he said, still not letting her in on the whole truth.

 _What is he hiding from me?_ she thought, slightly worried. But then he stood up suddenly again and pulled her up to.

He dragged her up to his bedroom. _I don't want to have sex now,_ she thought while stifling a yawn.

James gently pushed Lily onto the bed. "You get some sleep why don't you? You look like you've been up for a week."

"But why aren't you joining me?" Lily asked.

"I have something to do," he said, not looking her in the eye.

The internal struggle in her head began again.

 _I'm really fucking tired._

 _But he's hiding something from you! Find out what!_

 _I want to sleep!_

 _He could be going out to sleep with another girl._

 _He wouldn't do that._

 _Are you sure?_

 _Yes!_

 _But how can you be?_

 _He_ loves _me for fucks sake!_

 _But how can you be su_ — her thoughts were interrupted by James pushing her onto her back and giving her a very passionate kiss.

 _That's how._

"I'll be back soon, alright?"

Before she could respond, she'd already fallen asleep.

* * *

Several hours later Lily woke up to find James's arm around her while he was fast asleep. _I wonder when he got back?_ And _where he went to._

 _It doesn't matter now_ , she thought to herself. As carefully as she could, she pulled James's arm off of her so she could get out of bed and wash up.

When she'd reentered the room around a half an hour later, James was standing, fully dressed. Lily got dressed as quickly as she could because clearly he had plans today, even though they don't have auror training again until Monday.

"What's up?" She asked him.

"Everything!" he said with a grin. She hadn't seen him smile like that since they first had sex. _He couldn't possibly have cheated._ She reminded herself, but still very suspicious.

"I've got big plans today," he said. He couldn't seem to get that ludicrously happy grin off of his face.

"Which are?" she asked, her curiosity exceeding her anxiety.

First I'm taking you down stairs and we're going eat a fantastic breakfast I've prepared for us.

 _Is he pulling all of the ropes? Then that means_ — _no. Don't spoil it. Not yet._ Though she did feel slightly angry with herself for not realizing it sooner.

The breakfast they enjoyed was comparable to the Hogwarts feasts. James clearly went beyond himself to make the best possible meal.

When they'd finished eating, Lily was unable to keep the eagerness out of her voice when she said, "What next?"

"We're going to go for a walk," James said.

Slightly disappointed, Lily said, "Alright. Where to?"

"You'll see," James said.

When they left the house, James apparated them to a place Lily had never been to before. But it was beautiful. There was a large luscious green forest to their left with birds flying in and out of the canopy. To their left there was a marvelous sandy patch of beach next to a lake that she could hardly see the end of. And they were standing in a large meadow with very bright green grass and so many lilies and violets sprouting from the ground that you'd think the grass blades and flowers had switched places.

And the most amazing sight of all was her boyfriend, down on one knee holding an open box with the most spectacular ring she'd ever seen.

"Lily Evans, will you marry me?"

Lilly pinned him to the ground with her eyes filled with happiness and her mouth tightly locked on his.

"Er. . . is that a yes then?" James asked when she finally pulled away from him.

"Of course it's a yes you idiot!"

"But now I'm your idiot. Can I put the ring on you?"

She stood up and held her hand out to her now fiance, and he slipped the ring onto her left ring finger. Once the ring on she was slightly crestfallen. The ring was too big. But James already had his wand out, tapped the ring and it shrunk to fit her finger perfectly. _Now who's the idiot? Forget all about that magic thing, did you?_ she scolded herself.

As soon as the ring was on she jumped up and wrapped both her legs around James's waist and her arms around his neck and kissed him.

"You're really excited about this," said James with happiness beaming from his face.

"Of course I am! Why wouldn't I be?"

"I'm just saying, you nearly suffocate me when I propose, I'm just worried about your reaction when you see the house.

"What house?"

"That one." James pointed over her shoulder and she scolded herself again. _You look everywhere but never thought to turn around to see the rest of the gorgeous surroundings?_

As Lily turned around she was looking at the best house she'd ever seen. This is her dream home. It was scaled perfectly, had a large fence to the side for animals to be cooped in. There was an empty garden to the right, perfect for growing potion ingredients. Lily was always an expert when it came to potions.

And the house itself had a beautiful cherry wood roof, with very dark brown wood planking for walls. She could see that it's size was absolutely perfect. She'd always hated mansions and would never live in one, even if she was the queen. _But you are the queen. Look at everything your king has done for you?_

She turned around to face her husband, tears of happiness in her eyes and she hugged him again. "Where are we?"

"The Trinity."

"This is home."

* * *

Lily and James decided that they'd wait until after the wedding to move into The Trinity. Lily insisted on spending as much time with her sister, Petunia, before she had to leave her.

But even though Lily strived to be with her sister, she wasn't having too much luck. Behind auror training and wedding planning, she was having difficulty finding time.

Even when Lily found time for her sister, Petunia wasn't the same. She was turning her a cold shoulder because she was going off to live with "that Potter freak."

Nearly six months after the engagement, Lily and James finished the wedding preparations. The rehearsal dinner would occur in a day's time and the wedding would be the day after.

Lily and James had to do a lot of convincing to get out of auror training for the week of and after their wedding. Luckily Rufus Scrimgeour, the head of the Auror Department, is rather fond of the couple and all it took was an invitation and a "metric shit ton" of talking, as James put it.

Lily and James invited some of their old classmates, their family, and their favorite teachers. Surprisingly, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Slughorn accepted the invitations. The wedding was taking place on a weekend so the teachers were able to stay for both the dinner and reception.

They also invited Professor Tutrius, the very old Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher but said he couldn't make it.

"Well if it isn't the potions genius and bride to be herself! How are you doing Lily? Honestly I've got to say I was surprised to hear you're getting married so soon after leaving? You didn't slip James the old love potion, did you?" Slughorn said.

"What? No! James and I have been together for years. You can't be telling me you never noticed, Professor?"

"I'm teasing. Of course, you two were made for each other, never seen either of you happier. Congratulations."

"Thank you, professor."

"I'm not your professor anymore."

"Sorry, force of habit."

"Lily, just make sure you come to me if he ever treats you wrong. He's a very lucky man, and you don't deserve to be hurt."

Lily blushed "Oh. . . Er. Thanks, Pro—"

"Call me Horace."

"Thanks, Horace."

* * *

"James, come over here a second," said professor McGonagall.

"Yes, Professor?"

"Please, I'm no longer your professor. It's Minerva to you now."

"Okay. So what did you want to see me for, Minerva?"

"Don't sound so nervous, James. I just want to congratulate you."

"Oh, thanks. Is that all?"

"No. I've just had a word with Scrimgeour over there. He's described a very kind, obedient, law-abiding boy named James Potter. Now obviously this can't be you. The James Potter I know matches that description in no way."

"Well it's my livelihood at stake, not an hour sitting down doing lines."

"Lily really has done a number on you. Be good to her, you hear?"

"Er—" before he could say anything else, Minerva walked away and began talking to Lily's mother, who's a muggle.

"Can I have everyone's attention?" James yelled but to no avail. James decided to change tactics.

"Padfoot, do the thing." With a wink, Sirius set off and left the view of any if the guests. Seconds later a large black dog smashed through the window and started growling.

Everyone shut up to back away from the dog

"You need not worry for it is, I! Sir James Potter the first. With hand gripped firmly I vanquish this filthy mongrel!" James put on the same posh voice he did over seven years ago when he first met Remus.

With a wave of the wand, the dog went running and the window was repaired.

In a few more seconds, Sirius returned to the room as James started his speech.

"Seven years ago I first saw Lily. It was heavily raining and her boat was the only one besides the one I was riding that I could see. And out of the rain I saw the deep crimson hair on the head of the most beautiful face I've ever seen.

"By the time I got around to introducing myself she didn't like me at all. In fact, she hated me. So I kept my distance until the funeral.

"As everyone here very well knows, girls are weird—" small chuckles occurred from the men and scowls from the ladies. "— I saw her pain and went to comfort her and miraculously, she accepted it. And she hated ne. But from that point forward our friendliness to each other grew and I refuse to believe it'll ever stop.

"To Lily Evans-soon to be Potter! The most amazing woman can ask for.

"To Lily," the crowd murmured in unison.

"And James!" Lily said.

"To Lily and James," the crowd murmured in unison.

* * *

"We are all here in this beautiful meadow to bond Lily and James together for the rest of their life in love." Dumbledore was performing the ceremony.

"I have had the pleasure of watching these children grow into the adults they are now, and with their age grows their love. I believe you two have vows?" Sirius handed James a roll of parchment. "Why don't you go first?"

 _How does he have so much room in the messy-haired head for all of these speeches?_ Lily thought to herself.

"Every time I need to come up with a speech about you, I'd think I've exhausted everything there is to say. But then I take one glance into your brilliant green eyes and more and more words to describe your perfection fill my head. Just know that I love you and any second I'm not with you is wasted."

A single tear fell from Dumbledore's right eye as he said, "And Lily?"

Petunia handed a roll of parchment to her sister, restraining to let tears fall. She didn't want to come at all but her parents and her love for Lily made her.

Lily gave a watery smile to her sister who couldn't help but return it.

"James you never cease to amaze me. Sometimes I look back on our eleven year old selves and then I remember all of those reasons I hated you. I ask myself, is he really that arrogant, that cocky? Yes. You are. But it's those flaws that make you you, and without them you wouldn't be the man I see standing before me. Never stop being the man I love."

"Bands," Dumbledore said.

Sirius and Petunia handed golden wedding rings to Lily and James.

Lily put hers on James then James put his on her.

"You may embrace." Everyone, even Petunia, cheered as Lily and James kissed.

* * *

Lily and James Potter remained happily married for over a year and were determined to not let it stop.. Just a couple months ago, Rufus Scrimgeour decided their was nothing left to teach to Lily and James. Normally you'd have to go through three years of training to become a fully fledged auror but everything they "taught" them, they already knew. So he gave them the tests and now they're fully fledged aurors who work on the field.

They'd moved into The Trinity right after the wedding and began fully furnishing it together. In the garden area James had set up, Lily planted several plants that she'd need for complex potions. The garden was so huge that with every harvest, they ended up gaining more ingredients than they used. Whenever the stock gets full James would gather some up out of the jars and sell it to the apothecary in Diagon Alley. While he was there he'd buy some of the ingredients you can't grow. He'd only had to do this twice since moving in.

Lily decided to begin to make it a habit to have Felix Felicis brewing at all times. Felix Felicis is a luck potion, simply put. "You never know when it'll come in handy," she told her husband who wasn't too keen on the idea. While James had inherited the Potter vault which had a very large sum of galleons in it, he still didn't like how much the ingredients for Felix cost. Eventually Lily convinced him by telling him they'd only need to buy those particular ingredients every six months, because that's how long it took to brew the potion.

On the other side of the house there was a large fenced in area full of different food producing animals. They had several magically bred cows that produced different types of milk daily. While all the milk looks the same, they have slightly different tastes and can have different positive effects on your mood. Inside the pen there were also half a couple of magically bred chickens that produced rather small eggs daily. The eggs however, once broken open, have a lot more yolk and whites than should be possible.

The Potters had also bought a very friendly cat named Crookshanks that they'd had since a couple months after their marriage when it was just a kitten. Crookshanks is part kneazle and is very intelligent.

The Trinity was impossible to be accessed by any other means other than apparition. The only thing James had completely hidden from Lily was how he discovered/made this place. But she didn't care as long as they got to live there risk-free. _This place is beautiful,_ she'd always think to herself.

James had taken to turning their perfectly normal forest and lake into homes for magical creatures that didn't have one. He'd come across some injured animal once in awhile, heal it up, then set it free in the forest. He'd then make sure to get it a mate so the population would go.

The most surprising creatures Lily had seen James bring home were actual mermaids who he'd set free in their lake. Apparently Dumbledore contacted James about a mermaid family that were outlawed from the others and helped him set up a comfortable home on the bottom of the lake.

When Dumbledore visited to give them a housewarming gift, he'd marveled at the beauty of The Trinity and wondered why Hogwarts wasn't built here. _James sure seems to be striving to make it as much like Hogwarts as possible,_ Lily had even gotten a pair of thestrals, one which he named Bonehooves after the fake one in Sirius's made up tale, the other one Lily named Witherwings. _How did he get all of these different creatures in just a year?_ Lily thought to herself.

It seemed their only normal pet they owned was their owl, Dusty. Dusty is a beautiful brown eagle owl who was blind in one eye. Despite that, he still managed to deliver owls faster than either Lily or James knew an owl to do as well as still be an affectionate pet. Dusty never nibbled on Lily and James's food when offered due to the fact that he'd already filled himself up on mice and rats.

* * *

Lily woke up one morning to see her husband had already woken and gone down to make breakfast without her. She went to the bathroom to wash up and found herself vomiting into the toilet. She continued this for a couple of minutes before finally being able to convince herself that it'd stopped.

When she'd gotten fully ready for work, she walked downstairs to the dining room.

"Are you okay? I heard you vomiting," James asked the minute she'd entered the room.

"I'm fine. You went down on me pretty hard last night, perhaps I'm still dizzy."

"Er. . . We have guests," James said blushing.

Lily blushed too when she saw Remus and Sirius sitting on the other side of the table than James.

Sirius grinned and whooped. _Is he a child?_ Lily thought bitterly. Remus looked awkward and just avoided their eyes while waiting for the subject to change.

"Oh. Hey Moony. . . _Padfoot_ ," she glared, still slightly irritated at his previous comment. "What are you two doing here? You know we're off to work in an hour, right?"

"We have Ministry business to deal with and we decided to stop by here so the group can hang out and then head out to the Ministry together," Remus said.

"What do you two need with the Ministry?" James asked.

"Well poor Moony here has finally managed a job interview and _I_ , have a date," Sirius said, grinning.

"Just the one? Not striving to beat your record this week?" Lily said.

"Well what's the part, Moony?" James asked.

"The Department of Regulation and Control for Magical Creatures actually sought me out, believe it or not. They said they could use a werewolf's point of view on some of their own going matter," Remus said, unable to suppress a grin.

"That's great, Moony! Here you thought the entire time your affliction was preventing you from getting jobs but now it's _helped_ you get one." Lily said.

"Well I haven't got the job yet. I still have to ace the interview."

"You'll get it. Once they've seen your actual values there's now way they can turn you down."

"Anyways, let's wait to celebrate until after the interview. Lily, honey, your food's getting cold," James said. Lily had completely forgotten that it's breakfast and sat down and began to eat. "Anyways, who's the girl, Padfoot?"

Sirius, finally snapping out of his boredom from Lily's and Remus's conversation, began happily, "Her name's Jessica Clearwater. She's muggleborn. And, believe it or not, I didn't choose her because she's hot. I actually like _her_ more than her body."

"I don't believe it," Lily muttered to James who smirked.

"Anyways, she's a guard for the Ministry and works a night shift. She'll be getting off, coincidentally, right when you two get on." He pointed at Lily and James.

"Well we should get going. Moony, when's your interview?" James asked.

"It's in another half hour, but I've promised to drop in and visit my father."

"What for?" James asked.

"I have no idea. I'm kind of worried to be honest. His handwriting was very sloppy instead of his normal handwriting which is very neat. I should know, I inherited it from hi— Lily are you sure you're okay?" Lily had just cupped her hand to her mouth. She shook her head and ran to the bathroom.

After a couple of minutes, James went up to the bathroom and she told them to leave without her.

* * *

When he'd got to work, Scrimgeour asked him if Lily was okay because she owled in sick before he'd arrived.

"I hope so. She was vomiting this morning and told us to leave without her. I thought she was just going to show up late when she told me to leave without her," James told his boss.

"Well tell her to get well soon from me."

"Will do. Listen, is there anything important going on today?" James asked.

"We got word about a crazed Grindelwald fan hiding out near a muggle village, attacking its inhabitants. Apparently he's trying to show him his loyalty so he'll respect him when he 'breaks him out.' But go home, check up on Lily. Shacklebolt and Dawlish can manage one dark wizard on their own."

"No. There could be more than one out there, I couldn't rest knowing those two died because I freaked out when my wife threw up. I'll go with them to investigate then head straight back home."

"Look, I'm not taking 'no' for an answer. If it makes you feel better, I'll accompany them if it makes you feel better."

"Alright. Thank you, sir." With that, he apparated back home.

* * *

When James walked in he saw his wife lying down on the couch with a bean bag on her forehead that she'd charmed to keep cold.

Lily looked up even though he walked as quietly as possible toward her. Perhaps she'd already been awake.

"Why are you back already?" Lily asked.

"Scrimgeour wouldn't let me work. Told me to check up on you. So what's up?"

She didn't say anything. Instead she smiled a pointed her wand at her stomach. Immediately a combination of blue and pink sparks shot into the air and split to pour to either side of Lily, the pink sparks separating from the blue ones.

James's eyes widened in shock. Then his mouth formed a huge grin and ran to hug his wife.

"This is amazing!" he said.

"I know! Twins! A boy _and_ a girl!"

They later sent Dusty to inform Remus and Sirius to come to The Trinity as soon as soon as they were done with their day's plans.

Remus was the first to arrive, who walked in looking none too pleased.

"So, what's this great news?" He said with a hollow smile.

"Remus, what's wrong?" James only called the other marauders by their actual names when he knew the topic they were about to enter wasn't going to be a good one.

"My dad has dragon pox. He's got until the end of this month to live. He's been in St. Mungo's for the past three weeks. His letter told me I'd be meeting him at the Ministry, but I was told by that Crouch fellow," Remus said.

"Oh my god, poor Lyall. I'm so sorry, Remus," Lily said attempting to get up, but James held her down.

"You need your rest," he said so Remus couldn't hear him. Reluctantly, Lily let her head fall back to her pillow.

James's parents had also died of dragon pox rather recently. The fact that Remus's last parent is going to die the same, slow, painful death as his was hitting him rather harder than he'd expected it to.

After a while of sitting there in silence, Remus said, "Er. . . I got the job. Just want you to know."

"That's great, congratulations!" Lily said.

"Well, did you perform the Gravida Charm yet?" Remus asked Lily.

"What? How did you—"

"Come on, you were throwing up and clearly had no other symptoms of illness. Now you've got that charmed bean bag on your forehead," Remus said.

"Yes, we're have twins. Boy and girl," Lily said, unable to suppress a grin even after the saddening news they'd just received.

"Congrats, guys! You're going to make great parents. . . I'd love to stay but I think I need to go visit my dad at St. Mungo's," Remus said while walking toward the door.

"Alright. Tell him we'll try and stop by sometime soon," Lily called after him.

After about an hour, Sirius popped into their living room out of thin air.

"What's up?" Sirius said, spotting James in the kitchen while Lily was asleep on the couch. "You said you had great new."

"Well Remus has given us bad new as well. Which do you want to hear first?" James said.

"Good."

"Lily's pregnant with a boy and a girl."

"That's incredi—!"

" _Shhh! The mother-to-be is asleep!_ " James hissed at Sirius.

"Sorry. That's incredible. Two little Prongses running around Hogwarts, carrying on the marauder name. So what are you going to do, give one the cloak and the other the map?"

"Are you kidding? Lily would flay me alive if I even mentioned the idea."

"You're probably right. But in this case, we'll be able to tack up each of their first angry letters on the wall. If they weren't caught, how'd we get that piece of nostalgia? Anyway, what's the bad news?"

* * *

Two weeks later Remus came bearing the news that Lyall Lupin passed. There weren't many people at the funeral, but those who did come managed to say some very touching words about Remus's father.

In a couple month's time, everyone would have managed to fully cope with Lyall's death.

James walked in and sat next to Lily whose stomach had already grown a considerable amount. "So, shall we pick up where we left off?"

"We are _not_ naming our son William!" Lily snapped.

"Why not? How is William not better than Ignotus?"

"It's a perfectly lovely name, and that's the name of _your_ ancestor! He's the one that made your cloak!"

"So what? Good wizard. Stupid name."

"It's not stupid!"

"Of course it is! And knowing our luck, he's going to go around having everyone call him _Iggy_ , There's no way you want to put our son through that."

Lily looked defeated. "Yes, perhaps you're right. But we're still not naming him William."

"Why?"

"His nickname will most likely be Willy. I can see it now. Tear stained letter from our son saying kids are going around chanting ' _Willy's willy is silly'_ or some shit like that."

James snorted. "Okay, yeah. You're right too. But what are we going to do? Every name either one of us thinks is good gets shot down. We were so lucky that your family has that flower name tradition. All we had to do is walk outside and be like, 'Oh. Violet. Good enough!'"

"If it weren't for that she'd probably be back from her seventh year at Hogwarts and we'd still be bickering about what we should have named her."

"I still don't get why Moony shot down Lyall," James said.

"Yeah, I know. The one name we can agree on and he has to go play that _friendship_ card. But you can't blame him. We both shot down Peter and Severus for the same reasons he did," Lily pointed out.

James didn't say anything.

"James?" Lily said.

"Harry."

"What?"

"What do you think of Harry?"

"Where'd you come up with that?"

"It just popped into my head. I can't find anything wrong with it."

Lily looked deep in thought. "Yeah. Harry and Violet Potter."

"The new marauders."

"Now what are we going to do about middle names?" Lily asked.

James sighed.

* * *

 _ **Six Months Later**_

"Quick! We need to get my wife to a bed, she's in labor!" James shouted as soon as they entered St. Mungo's.

"Come this way!" A female healer pushed through the people that filled the reception room to guide them toward the staircase.

Instead of going upstairs, the witch tapped her wand on the railing and the staircase slid sideways to allow them into a secret ward. There were several empty beds here and the healer helped Lily into the nearest one.

Once she'd lied down she began screaming in pain. "She's having a contraction," James said needlessly. The _healer_ was the expert, after all.

The healer pulled out her wand and started waving it over Lily muttering very fast incantations. James felt a little nervous watching it but knew they were most likely spells meant to guide Lily through the birthing process safely. Lily stopped screaming when the healer stopped muttering incantations.

"I've regulated your blood flow so that once you're fully dilated, you'll be much safer. I've also given you a calming charm to help ease the tension and done the best I can to minimize the pain for you.

"That's the best I can do for you now. I'll be back soon."

Two hours passed and the healer came back to cast more spells on Lily.

"You're halfway there. I've sped up the process a little bit. You should be ready to give birth to the first one in thirty minutes.

Harry was born exactly thirty minutes before Violet was. Lily took one look at her two children in James's arms before her eyes slid shut and her head fell back on her pillow.


	2. The New Marauders

Harry woke up to a loud banging on his door. "Up! Up! I need you to watch the bacon! I want everything to be perfect for Dudley's birthday!" Harry ground. _Of course. Dudley's birthday. How could I have forgotten?_

Harry got changed and opened the door to the closet under the stairs that was his room at Number Four Privet Drive.

* * *

Then there was banging on his door. Harry's eyes snapped open and found himself lying on a comfortable bed. He looked at the window and noticed that the sun wasn't even up yet. "Come in," he said groggily while sitting up and putting on his glasses.

The door opened and a five-year-old girl with deep crimson hair walked in. "Vi! What time is it?"

"It's nearly three. I had a bad dream," she said looking down at her feet. _I had pretty strange one too_ , Harry thought to himself.

"Well come on then," Harry said patting the other side of his bed. Violet often got bad dreams and came into her twin's room seeking comfort and protection.

Violet's head jerked up and she beamed at her brother and ran to jump on his bed. "Thanks bro!" and gave him a quick hug.

"Just don't kick me like you did last time," said Harry who took off his glasses and lay back down. Violet had already crawled under the covers and lay on her side so her back now face Harry's. She grumbled something indistinguishable that Harry clearly understood to mean goodnight. But before he got the chance to say it back he'd already fallen back asleep.

* * *

Harry saw a bright flash of green light right before jerking awake. He looked up and saw Violet sitting on the side of his bed. This time they were seven years old.

"Morning lil' sis," said Harry while putting on his glasses.

"Don't call me that! You're only thirty minutes older than I am. Why the hell did Dad have to tell you that any way?"

"I dunno, Vi. All you can be certain of is that I'm making sure you'll never forget who's older. Let's go on an adventure!"

"Ooh! Where to this time?"

"The firewhiskey cabinet."

"Oh you know Mum would explode if she found out about that."

"So that's the key. She won't find out. Get out so I can change."

"A little 'please' would be nice every once and awhile."

Five minutes later Harry found his twin waiting outside his door.

"Why are you always so slow?" she asked him when he emerged from his room.

"Come on. I have a plan." Harry began a very long speech of which Violet soaked up every word.

"Got it. Okay. Operation 1, commence." Violet took off down the hall not making a sound with her footsteps as she headed for their parents' door.

Harry slowly snuck down the stairs. His feet were not so impossibly quiet. He reached the kitchen and dragged a chair to the counter so he could climb on top of it.

He carefully walked down the counter and stopped a couple feet away from what he knew to be the "forbidden cabinet" as his parents called it.

Harry leaned over the edge of the counter and opened a draw and drew a spoon. He threw it at the handle of the cabinet as hard as he could. Immediately it flew back a few feet and then froze in midair.

Harry then opened the cabinet door and found his treasure. A tall glass bottle with intricate patterns on it. The cork had an picture wrapped around it of flames that were moving as if they were real. Harry grabbed the bottle, closed the cabinet door and leapt off of the counter.

He moved the chair back to the table which he crawled onto and grabbed the spoon. He then carefully placed it back in the drawer that held all of the utensils.

Trying to be as quiet as possible, he made his way up the staircase. Carefully he peeked around the corner and saw Violet standing guard in front of the door. He made his way back to his room and gave Violet a thumbs up, their elite secret signal.

Harry entered the room basking in his glory. Violet ran into the room, footsteps still somehow quiet.

"You did it!" Violet screamed when she'd closed the door behind them. With all of their might, Harry and Violet both tried in vain to get the cork out.

"How the hell are we supposed to drink this?" Harry asked.

"Don't ask me, it was your plan."

"I didn't think we'd make it this far!"

"What was the point in even trying at all if you'd thought we failed you prat?" Violet glared at him.

"I just wanted to—" just then their door burst open and Lily walked in looking furious.

"Why, are there footprints on my counter that your father just cleaned last night?" she demanded.

Harry knew it was hopeless. He grabbed his sister's hand, thrown his window open, and jumped out. Somehow their fall was completely light. They heard running inside the house so they took off towards the forest.

"Quick, before she sees us!" Violet said. Deeper they ran until Harry ran into something invisible and Violet ran into him.

"What was that?" Harry asked, picking himself up off of the ground.

"It must be Bonehooves or Witherwing! Remember? Dad told us about the invisible horses he'd saved and brought to the forest!" Violet said.

"Oh yeah! They're called tendrils or something."

"Alright, so now that we've escaped, where do we go?" Violet asked.

"Er. . . Let's try to find a way to open this bottle," Harry suggested.

"How? Unless you want to smash it open and pour all of the firewhiskey on the ground, what are we going to do?"

"I don't know! Why don't you do the thinking for once?" Harry snapped.

"I still can't believe you didn't wipe your footprints. Such a rooky mistake," Violet added.

"Well I'm not usually the thief. If you could have done it better, why didn't you have me be the lookout and you go steal this damned useless bottle?"

"It was your plan! I thought you knew what you were doing?"

"Well I— oh no."

In the distance they could see a brilliant stag bound toward them faster than they could even blink.

"What do you two think you're doing?" their Dad demanded, who had replaced the spot where the stag had previously been.

Harry gave Violet a poke in the ribs and she began fake crying.

"I'm sorry! I— I didn't— Just wanted—" Violet said between fake sobs.

"Oh stop it. It's been years since that last worked on me."

"Worth a shot though," she pouted.

"Give me the bottle." They handed it to him. "Now your hands." They each grabbed onto one of their father's hands really tightly. He turned on the spot and in an instant they appeared in their living room. Harry heard a gasp from his sister.

"How does that not bother you?" she demanded.

"It just doesn't all—" he stopped as he noticed their mother standing in front of them.

Harry and Violet both held their breaths in anticipation. Instead of the attack that they were expecting, she just glanced at her husband for a brief moment before she swept down and hugged her two kids.

Normally they'd squirm uncomfortably at this but they were just happy to not being punished so they returned the hug. But just as they sighed in relief, it came.

"What did you think you were doing? Jumping out of the window like that? Scaring me half to death? That fall could have killed you!"

"Violet pushed me out of a window before and I'd just glided down safely. I figured it'd work again."

"She did what?" It was their father's turn to yell.

"Er. . . Out of that window over there—"he pointed at the window next to the front door. "— it was completely sa—"

"Violet Petunia Potter did you push your brother out of that window?" their mother demanded.

"No!" this time she actually was crying. "It wa— was the one up— upstairs! In— In his room! He— He stole my— my necklace!"

"There is no excuse for pushing your brother out of a window that high up!" their mother said.

Harry tried to walk off unnoticed but was turned around and pushed back towards his mother by his father.

"And you! Don't you go stealing your sister's things! And how many times do we have to tell you to stop trying to steal the firewhiskey? You'll have some when you're of age! Or maybe not, if you keep trying to steal it!" she said.

"Yes, mum," said Harry feebly.

"No both of you, up to your rooms. You'll eat your breakfast alone! You'll be let out at lunch.

"You'd never do well under torture," he shot at his sister.

"Oh and you would?"

"Maybe! At least I'm not a rat! I wouldn't be in nearly as much trouble if you hadn't told them I took your necklace!" She reached in her shirt and pulled out a golden chain with metal violet that their father had gotten her at birth. It matched the one their mother had of a lily.

"You told them I pushed you out of the window!"

"That was an accident! I was just trying to get out of the 'worried sick' fiasco. But you didn't hear me telling them how many things you've stolen from me and them!"

"Oh my savior. Thank you so much for not telling them about my petty theft, even though you told them about me almost killing you."

"You didn't almost kill me!"

"If we were muggles you could have!" Violet's eyes were now starting to water.

"Don't start crying again!" She didn't obey.

"No! We're not doing this again," said Harry.

She started to sob harder.

"Dammit, Vi!" said Harry and pulled his sister into a hug that she returned.

* * *

Violet woke with a start. There was yelling outside her door.

"Get rid of it James!" said her mother.

"I can't Lily! This holds way too much sentimental value to me!"

"But what if the twins find it? Imagine us getting an owl from the Ministry telling us our kids have been arrested for being unregistered animagi!"

"Even if they did get this, they'd never be able to pull it off."

"That contains very specific instructions on how to become an animagus!"

"But it'd take them having to learn so many complicated spells that they'd never be able to do."

"Those two are geniuses in the making. Look how many times Vi has tricked us into telling her things we'd not wanted her to know. Look how many times Harry has gotten past those fancy defensive spells you're putting on the places you don't want them to go. They'll be able to do everything in that book quicker and better than you ever could." I'm no genius. I'm sly, sneaky. Harry's the genius.

"I'm not destroying it. I'll just hide it really well."

"The only spell you could cast that'd even have a chance of keeping them away from that journal is the Fidelius Charm."

"So that's what I'll cast."

"What? You're going to attempt a very complex spell like that just to protect a journal? You know that it'll drastically weaken you for weeks!"

"I'll cast it."

"Why do you care so much about this journal?" her mother asked, defeat in her voice. That's a first, Violet thought.

"If you'd read it, you'd know."

"And I'm guessing you're not going to let me read it."

Violet didn't hear anything else from that point but footsteps leading away from her door.

Making sure to remember the term, "Fidelius Charm," she fell back asleep.

* * *

Violet got up next morning and made towards Harry's room but stopped herself before she opened the door. Why is he always the one that comes up with the plans? I want some of the glory. I'll show him. I can get that journal all by myself.

Lily made her way downstairs and toward the bookshelves in the living room. She started pulling out books about charms and searching for any trace of the Fidelius Charm her parents mentioned.

After a while Violet had no luck finding mention of the charm and gave up. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask him about it if I just don't tell him why I want to know. No. I need to do this myself. I'm not just Harry's little sister. I'm Violet fucking Potter. I can do anything! I'm smart too! That book is already as good as mine.

But as she made her way toward the back door leading to that back yard, she remembered something and doubled back. She turned to a door on her left and slowly opened it.

She peeked through the crack in the door and was relieved to find it empty. She snuck in and saw a cauldron on top of a fire with a silvery-gold potion brewing in it. "Felix," she whispered to herself.

She made her way toward the case that stored her mother's fully brewed potions. Her eyes scanned each shelf for the bottle she was looking for but found no trace of it. I bet there's some special spell guarding it. Harry would know how to get past it. And so do you! Stop putting yourself down and think, Violet!

She searched the room until she finally noticed a small square on the wall that had a very faint shimmer to it that you wouldn't be able to see had you not been looking for it. Great, now how do I open it?

Violet reached in her pocket and pulled out a tiny pebble that somehow found it's way into her pocket. She threw it at the square but it just bounced off as if it didn't exist. She didn't dare touch it in case it might do something similar that was put on the firewhiskey cabinet.

She sat there and thought for several minutes but couldn't think of anything. _Harry wou— Harry would not know how to get through this. You're just as smart as he is. If you can— who are you kidding? Harry would have opened it in seconds. Here you are still stumped. Just go get some breakfast, it'll clear up your mind._

Violet made her way out into the hall and into the dining room. Her father was already in the kitchen, cooking.

"Morning, Vi. Sleep well?" He asked her.

"Yes," she was still irritated with herself.

"Well just sit down. I'm almost done here."

"Okay. Thanks, Dad."

Several minutes later Harry came downstairs and stared at his sister with a slightly hurt expression on his face. He sat down at his usual chair next to Violet and began eating his food too.

"What's up, Vi? You and I have never woken up without each other before," Harry asked her.

"Er— I guess I forgot."

"How could you forget?" Harry asked. Normally Harry was the first person Violet saw and vice versa. It's been that way for years, and now his twin who he's pretty close with somehow forgets?

In any case, he decided to drop it. Violet too was happy for this change.

"So, just four more weeks until we're off to Hogwarts!" Harry said.

"Yes! I can't wait until we get our letters. Mum and Dad have never taken us to Diagon Alley before, now they'll have no way to say 'no,'" Violet said excitedly.

"I'm really excited to get my wand. What core do you think yours will have? I'm really hoping for a phoenix tail feather, like dad."

"I want a unicorn hair. I heard that those wands are supposed to be extra loyal to their wielders."

"But phoenix tail feathers are supposed to be extra powerful."

"Either of you going to mention dragon heartstring?" their mother said when she walked in.

"I know dragon heartstring worked really well for you, Mum, but it's sort of like the Hufflepuff of wand cores, isn't it? Last resort," Violet said.

"Violet don't you talk about Hufflepuff like that. Some of the greatest witches and wizards I know are from Hufflepuff," their father said.

"I have nothing against anyone in Hufflepuff. I'm just saying I wouldn't want to be one."

"Well just don't get all sad if you're a Hufflepuff. They'll have gained a damn gained a damn good witch," her mother said.

"I'm not going to be a Hufflepuff, I'll be a Gryffindor!" said Harry.

"Don't you two go getting your hopes up," said their father.

"Why? You and Mum were in Gryffindor, that means we should too, right?"

"Not necessarily. Your godfather's entire family was in Slytherin, but he was Gryffindor."

"Speaking of which, when do we get to see Padfoot and Moony again?" asked Violet. "It's been ages."

"Well Moony's been very busy with the Ministry and your godfather has—" said their mother.

"Gettin' busy with your godmother," their father muttered with a smirk. She smacked her husband on the chest.

"Ooh, I don't think we've met Jessica. Isn't Penelope a third year or something?" Harry said.

"Fifth year, now. And don't you getting any ideas. You're practically family," her mother scolded.

Harry had a shocked expression on his face. "Mum! I'd never date someone older than me!"

"Well you keep that in mind when you want to date someone younger who has the same line of thinking."

"I'll just stick to girls my year."

"You'll have gone through them all by the end of first term," Violet said.

"That's one thing you didn't inherit from either of us," their mother said.

* * *

Violet worked tirelessly for the next several days to try and steal a swig of Felix but had no luck. Literally, she thought.

But then something happened to put her mind off of the journal.

Violet was barely awake when Harry burst into her room. "Hogwarts letters!" he said, handing her a brown envelope with an intricate wax seal.

She tore it opened and read through it.

"Ooh. Transfiguration, basic charms, defense against the dark arts, _potions_. I'm so excited!" Violet squealed.

"Ow, Vi. Yes, this is great. But we've already got all these books. Mum and Dad's old copies. All we need are robes, wands, cauldrons, and potions ingredients. Mum and Dad won't be using their old trunks and bags either. Let's go ask Mum and Dad when we can go to Diagon Alley."

The twins ran downstairs and found their parents eating without them.

"Where've you been? Your porridge is getting cold," their mother said. The twins showed them the letters and started eating their food as fast as possible.

"When do we go to Diagon Alley," the siblings asked in unison.

"Calm down, you've still got another week until you leave," their mother said before tears filled her eyes.

"Mum!"

"I'm fine. It's just my two babies going off and leaving me. We're not going to see you again until Christmas!"

"It's okay, Mum. We're just going to Hogwarts. We'll write to you all the time!"

"Yes, that's true," their mother said while wiping her eyes. After a little while she said, "I guess we should get you two your own owls."

"Really?" the twins said in unison.

"Yes, dear. I agree," said their father.

"So when do we go?" Harry asked again.

"Well your father and I have to work today. You're lucky it's a Friday. We'll go tomorrow."

* * *

Harry and Violet spent the rest of the day skimming through the school books their parents gave them.

"Hedwig," said Harry. His eyes looked up from A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot.

"What?" said Violet.

"Hedwig. That's what I'm going to name my owl."

"Oh. Yeah I guess I should find a name for mine too. Oh, hey Crookshanks," she said when the cat leapt up on her lap. He purred while Violet scratched behind his ear.

"Why does that cat always go to you? I'm here too! Sexist prick," Harry said.

"He just likes me better. He's not sexist. You're forgetting that he favors Dad over Mum."

"Whatever."

Violet still spent a lot of her time contemplating whether not to ask for Harry's help with getting the journal. _He's spent a quarter of his life with his nose buried in those books. I wouldn't put it past him to know exactly what the Fidelius Charm is or what enchantment Mum's using to guard Felix._

"Felix."

"What?" asked Harry.

"That's my owl's name: Felix."

"Hmm. I'm guessing he's going to be your 'lucky charm' as the muggles put it?"

"It's just a name, Harry."

"I like it."

* * *

The next day Harry woke to find his sister sitting on the edge of his bed. "Diagon Alley today!"

"I know. Let me change, will you?"

"Meet you at breakfast."

The twins wolfed down their food and stood next to the fireplace, waiting for their parents to finish too.

"Why are they so slow?" Violet said irritably.

"I think they're scared at the idea of giving 'the new marauders,' as Padfoot puts it, wands. I don't blame them though. Your pranks are bad enough without magic."

Violet just grinned evilly. Indeed, Violet had been pulling pranks on her brother for years. Harry had retaliated but his pranks didn't compare to hers.

"Alright, best not delay this any longer," said their father.

Violet snatched up the vase holding the floo powder, took a handful, and handed the vase to her brother.

She threw the powder into the fireplace and green flames erupted. She stepped in and said, "Diagon Alley!" Immediately she disappeared as the flames swallowed her up and then died out.

Harry followed suit, coming out of a fireplace in a place Harry had never been to before but knew to be The Leaky Cauldron. Violet was standing not far from it.

A second later, their parents apparated right next to them. They walked up to bar and their father said, "Morning, Tom. We'll take four butterbeers to go."

"Will do, James. Lily, you look lovely as ever. Ahh. These must be the twins! It's good to finally meet ya."

"Violet."

"Harry."

"Finally starting Hogwarts, eh? Excited?"

"Yep!" they said at the same time.

"They do that sometimes," said their mother.

"All the time, more like," said their father.

"Well here you go," said Tom and handed each of the Potters an orange bottle.

Their father walked to the door leading out to a solid brick wall and tapped a specific brick with his wand. Immediately the bricks began spinning and moved to form an archway leading out into a street filled with witches and wizards.

A man that looked around forty to fifty walked up and greeted them.

"Lily, James! And mini Lily and mini James! I see they swapped eyes." Lily had green eyes and James had brown. Violet took her father's eyes and Harry took his mother's.

"Good evening, Dawlish. This is Violet and Harry. We're getting their school things. First year at Hogwarts. And where is your son?" asked their father.

"He's finished. He took off and applied for auror training the minute he got off the train. Wanted to be like his old man. Well good to see you. I'm actually here for work. Best get to it. Nice to meet you, Violet, Harry." He gave a smile and walked off.

"So. Do I even need to ask what first," asked their mother.

"Wands!" they said in unison.

"Ollivander's it is."

They walked to the first building on the left if the street with a sign that depicted a wand shooting out the word, "Ollivander's."

"Ahh. I've been waiting for you two," an old man greeted Violet and Harry. "You're parents have done great things. Now I get to be the one to sell you the tools you need to guide you down the same path."

"Good evening, Ollivander," said their father.

"All right. I'm going to hand you a wand. You'll know if it's chosen you. Hand it to your brother to try if it doesn't." He seemed delighted to sell two wands at once.

Ollivander opened a box and drew a wand by the tip and handed it to Violet. As soon as she took it, Ollivander said, "Pass it on. You'll know instantly." Violet handed it to Harry and Ollivander instantly snatched it from him and put it back in its box.

Finally, Ollivander drew a semi-bright red wand that seemed to have had extra care taken while it was being carved. It had a very handle that looked as if it were designed just for Violet's hand. When she held it, a shower of golden sparks burst from the tip.

Ollivander applauded looking overjoyed. "Brilliant! Eight and a quarter inches. Cherry. Unicorn hair. Very solid and very light. Great for complex spells."

Ollivander kept handing Harry different wands until he drew a very straight black wand that had a slight indent that was clearly meant to be a handle. The instant Harry grasped it, a warmth spread through his fingers and golden sparks shot from the tip like Violet's did.

Ollivander applauded again. "That's the second wand I've ever made. Had it for years. It's 10 inches. Ebony. Dragon heartstring. It's very solid, like your sisters. Great for hexes and shield charms."

They gave Ollivander 25 galleons and left the shop. Indeed, they found their wands impossible to bend.

Next they went to Madam Malkin's where they got two sets of robes each. Then they headed off to get their potions ingredients.

The man who owned the shop seemed to be ashamed of his walls and countertops because every inch was covered with cases filled with different ingredients.

Their parents had enchanted the front pocket of their bags so that it held far more than the size of the entire bag. They walked out of the store with that pocket stuffed with their new cauldrons and ingredients. None of what they needed were being grown in The Trinity garden.

At last, they made their way to the magical pets store.

As soon as they walked in, Harry's eyes were drawn to a beautiful snowy white owl.

Harry turned expecting to have to argue with his sister for her was surprised to see Violet staring at a snake in an open glass case who was staring back. The snake was completely golden except for its single straight black stripe running down his spine and its pure white eyes. Its head was very dragon like but it gave a kind gaze to Violet.

Their parents seemed to notice Violet's trance. Their father said, "Vi, don't you want an owl?"

"Can I get him, please? I can use Harry's owl to deliver letters. Please?" Violet plead to her parents.

"Of course you can, Vi. Harry, have you found an owl you like?" said their mother.

Harry, who'd forgotten about the owl he'd seen previously due to the snake, nodded and pointed.

"She's beautiful," said Violet.

A couple minutes later, Harry and Violet walked out looking very happy while holding their pets in their cage and tank.

Before they took off they stopped at a school supplies shop for ink wells, quills, and parchment. They also visited some other stores for the various other things they'd need.

* * *

When they got home Violet had her mom conjure a table on which she set her new snake's tank. She slid open the tank and the snake slid out and into her hands.

Despite the scales looking like solid gold, he was very light and surprisingly soft to touch.

The snake lay in both her hands in a coil with his head raised and looking at his new owner.

"Felix," she said to the snake.

Harry set his owl's cage on his dresser and unlatched the door. She fluttered out and perched herself on Harry's forearm. She hooted as he stroked her head.

"Hey, Hedwig," he said.

* * *

Harry was up in the sky in the sidecar of a motorcycle. There were hooded people on brooms chasing them. He saw a flash of green light and Hedwig dropped dead to the bottom of her cage.

"Harry!" he heard a worried, feminine voice say.

"Oh, hey Vi," Harry said, still shaken up by the dream. He looked on top of his closet and Hedwig was standing on her perch in her open cage.

"You were screaming," said his twin.

"What?"

"You were kicking and shouting 'no.'"

"Oh, bad dream I guess. Is it morning?"

"Yeah. We're off to Hogwarts today!"

"Oh yeah! Let me get dressed!"

Harry walked downstairs with his trunk and bag. He had his wand in his pocket which he didn't want to part from since he'd gotten it.

"Big breakfast today! We know how hungry students get on that train," their father said.

Indeed, on the table there was a plate over full of bacon, another plate stacked with pre-buttered toast, and six plates set with two fried eggs each. They were from the magic chickens the Potters raised so the entire plate was covered.

"Ooh! Are Padfoot and Moony coming?" Violet asked, noticing the two extra plate settings.

"Yes, they rather insisted on seeing you off," said their mother. "Okay, before they get here, let's make sure you're both prepared. Wands?"

"Check," they said in unison.

"Books?"

"Check."

"Robes?"

"Check."

"Bags with potion ingredients and cauldron?"

"Check."

"Parchment, ink, quills?"

"Check."

"Pets in cages?"

"Check," said Violet.

"Harry?" asked their mother.

"Er. . . I let Hedwig out to go hunt for mice, she's not back yet."

"That's fine. Owls have a sort of magical radar. She'll know where to find you. Money bags?"

"Check." The kids were responsible for gathering eggs and milk and feeding all of the animals. That's how they earned their allowance. Sometimes Lily wouldn't feel like watering the crops and would give the twins extra gold for doing it for her.

"That's everything." There were two consecutive faint pops in the kitchen. "That'll be Moony and Padfoot. Well let's go eat. We've got to leave in an hour and a half," said their mother.

Everyone sat at the table and began scooping bacon and toast onto their plates.

"Thanks for having us over today," said Remus.

"Well it's our pleasure. And they didn't really give us much of an option, wouldn't take 'no' for an answer," he muttered to Violet.

"You tried saying 'no?'" Violet returned incredulously.

"Didn't get the chance to."

"So how are we getting there? We can't apparate with our trunks," Harry asked.

"We've rented a car from a muggle dealership. It's waiting for us outside the Leaky Cauldron. Your mother has added some enchantments to it to but we have to take them off before we give it back," their father replied."

"What kind of enchantments? Did you do the Undetectable Extension Charm like you did with our bags? Have you added something to it to make it invisible while it's traveling and things jump out of its way like with the Knight Bus?" Harry asked.

"Why aren't we taking the Knight Bus?" Violet asked.

"Your mother hates that thing," their father said.

"It's horrible. As long as I'm living I'm going to make sure you don't have to ride that damned thing," their mother said.

"I can't blame you. I had to ride that to King's Cross every year. I always ended up throwing up my breakfast as soon as I got off," said Remus.

"Well? What kind of enchantments did you put on the car?" Harry asked again.

"Oh! Yeah well you guessed it. It's pretty similar to the Knight Bus, just in the shape of an old banged up Volkswagen and not as fast," their father explained.

"Cool! I read that that's really complex magic. Things that they don't even teach you at Hogwarts," Harry said in awe.

Their mother looked pleased at the compliment.

* * *

Violet still hadn't had any luck on the enchantment guarding the Felix Felicis. She'd brought Felix the snake with her while searching through books and trying different things in an attempt to use him as a "good luck charm" as Harry mentioned but it did nothing. Either way, the snake had kept her hopeful, despite making zero progress.

The only other person, or animal, more like, that liked Felix was Crookshanks. Everyone else seemed to just ignore the snake, except Harry who'd stroke him when he was close to Violet but he didn't really like the snake as much as Violet and Crookshanks did. Every time Violet walked into the living room with Felix wrapped around her arm, he'd slither off onto the carpet and begin playing with Crookshanks. Violet couldn't figure out why, though.

She'd done her best to make sure Crookshanks and Felix saw each other as much as possible before they had to leave. While Violet didn't approve of the idea that her snake likes her cat more than her, she wasn't totally bitter as to prevent them from being friends. Otherwise Felix would really hate her.

The odd thing about Felix was that he seemed to be just as intelligent as Crookshanks. None of the Potters or marauders knew an animal other than a kneazle or part-kneazle, like Crookshanks, to be as smart as Felix.

Originally Felix's pure white eyes gave everyone the impression that he was blind. However, as Violet soon discovered, this was not the case. Whenever Violet would forget something, Felix would tighten around her wrist and stare pointedly at the thing she'd forgotten.

On the Hogwarts letter it said that the only pets you were allowed to bring to school were owls, cats, and toads. Lily had messaged Dumbledore and gotten signed consent giving her permission to bring Felix.

The car pulled up to King's Cross and their father was the first to get out as went to get a couple of trolleys for Harry's and Violet's trunks.

Harry and Violet pushed their trunks trailing a little behind the adults. When they reached platform nine, Harry looked around expectantly.

"Er. . . Where's platform nine and three quarters?" he asked.

"Wait, you've never told them how to get onto the platform?" Sirius said incredulously.

"I know! You go through the barrier between nine and ten," said Violet. She grinned at the look on Harry's face. For once she knew something that he didn't.

"We'll go first, then the twins, and Lily and James will follow after," said Remus, pointing to himself and Sirius.

Harry and Violet glared at Remus but agreed. They hated being referred to as "the twins."

Remus and Sirius waited towards the barrier when a crowd of people walked by and the two marauders were gone.

Harry and Violet walked toward the barrier and just as they were about to hit it, they appeared on a large platform that stood in front of a large scarlet steam engine with the words, "Hogwarts Express" painted on every other two carriages.

Seconds later their parents appeared behind them and they all walked toward the train.

"Well this is it. We're going to miss you two," said their mother. She'd already cried herself out so had no tears to shed this time.

"We're going to miss you too," the twins said at the same time.

At this tears began to form at their mother's eyes. "Oh I'm going to miss when you do that!" She bent down at gave her kids a bone crushing hug.

When she finally let them go, their father, Remus, and Sirius each gave their respective hugs, but they were less painful.

"Alright, I guess we'd better let you go. Listen, I don't want to get any letters from Hogwarts that aren't delivered by you two. So don't go getting yourselves in trouble by jinxing your fellow classmates," their mother said.

"You heard her. Don't get caught." He gave them a slight wink.

Their mother surprisingly smiled at this and pecked her husband on the lips.

"Bye Dad, Mum!" said Violet.

"Bye Padfoot, Moony!" said Harry. They gave one last wave to parents and boarded the train.


	3. Hogwarts

When Harry and Violet boarded the train, they walked down the corridor in an attempt to find an empty compartment. They had no such luck. Eventually they located a compartment with a two friendly-enough looking boys. One was orange-haired and freckled while they other was a small, round-faced looking boy with deep brown hair.

"Is it okay if we sit here?" Violet asked.

"Sure. I'm Ron Weasley," said the orange-haired boy.

"Neville Longbottom," said the round-faced boy.

"Harry Potter, and my sister, Violet Potter," said Harry while they stored their trunks and bags on the shelf above the seats they later took.

"I've heard of your parents! They're aurors too. Frank and Alice, right?" said Violet.

"Yeah. They go on and on about your parents. Lily and James, right?" said Neville.

"Yeah. And my Dad told me he's good friends with your dad," Harry said to Ron.

"Oh. He never told us about them specifically but when he talks to my Mum he sometimes mentions a James."

Violet pulled a chocolate frog out of her pocket and began to eat it. "Dumbledore. I've got half a dozen of these," she said while looking at the card.

"Where'd you get that?" Harry asked.

"I nicked it. I saw it in the pocket of some blonde boy," she said.

"You mean you can pickpocket?" said Neville incredulously.

Harry rolled his eyes. "You sure _you're_ not missing anything out of your pockets?" Harry said.

Neville searched his pockets. "My wand!"

"I didn't steal your wand. Are you sure it's not in your trunk?" Violet said.

"Oh, here it is."

* * *

They talked for about an hour when a young witch opened their compartment door offering to sell them snacks. Harry and Violet got a pile of chocolate frogs and cauldron cakes that they shared with Ron and Neville. Neville thanked them and started on a chocolate frog.

It took a little convincing to get Ron to eat with them. When he finally accepted he couldn't stop saying, "Thanks."

"Look. Just take the food and shut up," Harry and Violet said at the same time.

"Do you do that alot?" Ron asked.

"Yeah," they said in unison.

"Is it a twin thing?" Neville asked.

"No. My brothers, Fred and George, are identical twins and they never do that," said Ron.

"We're pretty close," Harry said.

"If Fred and George were in closer it'd be incest."

"Please never say that again," Violet said.

They continued telling stories for the next couple of hours.

"Are you sure you're Potters? I swear, from everything I've heard, you two are exactly like Fred and George," said Ron after Violet explained one of her most elaborate pranks.

"Does one of them have crimson hair and a vagina?" Violet asked.

Ron just blushed.

Eventually the talk turned to Quidditch.

"I'm betting on Puddlemere United winning this time," Neville said.

"No way. The Chudley Cannons have put together an amazing team. Have you seen how many people their beaters have knocked off their brooms?" said Ron.

"I'm a Tornados fan, through and through," Violet chimed in.

"Yeah. They've picked up a pretty good seeker this time around. I hear she can do that Wronski Feint." Neville said.

"I can do that," Harry said.

"Really? People practice for years to try that and most of the time never succeed!" Ron gaped.

"I've had years to practice," said Harry.

Ron and Neville continued to gape at Harry for several seconds.

"Who do you think is going to ask you out first?" Violet said to Harry. Ron and Neville turned a deeper red than Violet's hair.

"Anyway, I've got my money on the Harpies," said Harry.

Everyone snorted. "Are you kidding?" said Neville.

"Dude their team is absolutely abysmal!" Ron said.

"He's in love with the seeker," Violet said while smirking.

"I don't care how pretty she is. She stared right at the snitch for several seconds without noticing it. She's the worst seeker any team's ever had!" Ron said.

Harry blushed and didn't say anything.

A little while passed while they continued to talk when a rather pretty, bushy-haired girl opened their compartment door. Hairy instinctively ruffled up his hair to make it even messier than it already is. Violet noticed that and snorted.

"You lot better get changed. The conductor said we'll be there in ten minutes," said the stranger and left. They took her advice and pulled on their school robes.

Sure enough, the train soon began to lose speed. The witch that pushed the trolley went shouting down the corridor. "Leave your things in your compartments! They will be moved for you!"

The train eventually stopped and the twins flooded out of the train with their two new friends. They heard a deep voice shouting over the sound of the students' footsteps. "Firs' years! Firs' years, over here!"

Harry, Violet, Neville, and Ron filed toward a man twice as tall as the average person who had a very bushy beard. He gestured all of the first years towards boats lining the edge of the lake. The foursome filled one boat and after a couple more minutes, the boats began to move by themselves.

After several minutes the overly tall man said, "And there's yer firs' glimpse o' Hogwarts!" There were "oohs" and "ahs" as a very large castle came into view through the fog. It had many towers but four main ones. Two of which were the same size, the third being slightly shorter than those two, and the fourth being a little taller than the rest.

After another several minutes, the boats came to a neat stop at the edge of the lake. The students climbed out and followed the man up to the front of the castle. He walked up to the great oak doors that were twice as tall as him and knocked three times with the knocker.

The doors swung open and an elderly witch who Harry and Violet assumed to be Professor McGonagall due to their parents' and the marauders' descriptions of the Transfiguration teacher and head of Gryffindor house.

"Here yeh go, Professor. Firs' years," Said the large man.

"Thank you, Professor Hagrid. You may go." The man they now knew to be Professor Hagrid walked through a double door to their right. "You will be sorted into your houses momentarily. Wait out here."

"How do you think we're sorted?" Ron asked.

"I dunno. I think there's some kind of test," said Neville.

"I'm not worried. I can handle anything they throw at us," said Harry.

"They wouldn't give us anything too difficult, anyways. We've not learned any magic yet," said Violet. A few people who overheard agreed.

Moments later, Professor McGonagall walked back holding an old, ragged hat and stool and motioned for the students to follow her into the room that Professor Hagrid disappeared to. She lined up the first years along the far right wall and walked up in front of the table that the staff sat at. Everyone waited with bated breath when a tear near the base of the hat opened and it broke into song.

It sang about the four houses and described the qualities of those who went to each of them. Gryffindors were brave, Hufflepuffs were loyal, Ravenclaws were clever, and Slytherins were cunning. It then told them that all they'd have to do to be sorted is to put on the hat and it'd tell you what house you're in.

Professor McGonagall unrolled a piece of parchment and said, "When I call your name, sit on the still and put on the hat. Abbott, Hannah!"

A blonde girl walked up to the stull and donned the hat. A few seconds passed and the tear opened again and shouted, "HUFFLEPUFF!" The table second closest to the right cheered as she went to join them.

A few sortings later, McGonagall called out, "Granger, Hermione!" and the pretty girl that told them to don their robes was sorted into, "GRYFFINDOR!" The table on the far left cheered as she went to join them.

More names were called and then, "Longbottom, Neville!" was sorted into, "GRYFFINDOR!"

"Malfoy, Draco!"

"Hufflepuff!" The table second to the right cheered, but nearly as enthusiastically as it had with everyone else that had been sorted into there. Perhaps his family's got a bad rep. Harry thought.

"That's the boy I stole the chocolate frog from," said Violet.

"Patil, Padma!"

"Ravenclaw!"

"Patil, Parvati!"

"Gryffindor!"

"More twins?" Harry said to Violet incredulously.

"Potter, Violet!"

Violet gave a befuddled glance toward her brother before walking up to the stool. _I thought this list was alphabetical,_ Harry thought to himself. _In what world does 'V' come before 'H'?_

"SLYTHERIN!" With another befuddled look at her brother, she joined the table on the right.

"Potter, Harry!"

A few of the other students murmured to each other. Apparently they noticed the mistake too.

Harry walked up to the stool, sat down, and donned the hat. Immediately, a voice appeared inside his head.

 _Ooh! If it isn't Potter number two. Let's see, where should I put you?_

 _Slytherin!_ Harry thought to himself.

 _You want to be in Slytherin? I was debating Gryffindor or Ravenclaw._

 _Slytherin, please!_ Harry thought desperately.

 _Aah. You can't bare to part with your sister. That shows loyalty. How about Hufflepuff?_

 _SLYTHERIN!_

 _I'm kidding. If you insist, I have no choice but to put you in_ "SLYTHERIN!" It shouted the last word to the entire Great Hall.

"I thought you two were okay," Ron joked as Harry passed him to join his sister at the far right table.

"Mum and Dad are going to be furious," Violet whispered to Harry.

"This is your fault, you know?" Harry responded.

"How is it my fault?"

"You're the one who was put into Slytherin!"

"What about you?"

"I asked it to put me here because you were."

Violet hesitated for a moment. "You can do that?"

"Apparently."

Several names later and then,"Weasley, Ronald!"

"Gryffindor!"

Finally the sorting ended with, "Zabini, Blaise!" being sorted into "SLYTHERIN!"

When the applause died, a very old man that Harry recognized from Chocolate Frog cards wearing half-moon spectacles and had very long silver hair and an even longer silver beard stood up from a throne-like chair behind the middle of the staff table.

"Welcome! I have things to tell you, but they can wait. I am, as you too most likely are, starving. Enjoy!" Dumbledore said and sat back down.

Harry and Violet looked down and saw that platefuls of all kinds of different foods had appeared right before their eyes as well as large pitchers filled with pumpkin juice. They both piled food on their plates and ate greedily, occasionally stopping for a swig of pumpkin juice. After enough people stopped eating, the foods were replaced by deserts that they ate as if their lives depended on it.

Finally, the tables were cleared and Dumbledore again stood up.

"Now that we're all full up, I have a few announcements for you. Firstly, the new students should know that the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds. And some of our older students might need reminding of that as well." His eyes flickered toward a pair of identical, orange-haired twins at the Gryffindor table.

"Our caretaker, Mr. Filch, has requested me to remind you that magic is banned in the hallways, as is an extensive list of items that can be viewed at any time on his office door." The corners of his mouth twitched. "Anyone who is interested in trying out for Quidditch will need to see their Heads of Houses. And lastly it's with deep sorrow to announce the retirement of Professor Tutrius." By the looks on the other students' faces, this was not bad news. "But it's with great pleasure that I announce that Professor Milton Dawlish will be taking his place as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." There was applause at this. "And now it's time we go to bed. Prefects, lead the first years to their the common rooms."

"First year Slytherins, this way!" said a tall, dark-haired boy wearing a shiny green badge with a silver border and 'P.'

"What happened to Dawlish? Just a week ago he was doing a job for the Ministry," Violet asked while following the prefect.

"I don't know. Maybe he was retiring and promised to do that one last job?" Harry suggested.

"Could be. But what if he screwed up the job so badly they fired him?"

"Can't be. There's no way Dumbledore would leave it until a week away from term to fill the vacancy. And most people would kill for that job."

"That's the problem. There are people who'd literally kill for that job. I mean, what dark wizard would pass up the chance perform illegal spells without punishment? I'd be afraid for my life if I took that position."

"Well who'd take on an ex-auror?" Harry said.

"I guess that's why he's here," Violet responded.

The prefect led them down a staircase into a dark corridor lit by torches instead of the wall sconces that decorated the entrance hall. They passed four doors when the prefect stopped abruptly at a blank stretch of wall. "Remember this location," he said. "You'll need the password to get in. They change every month. The new ones are posted on the notice board inside the common room the day before the change. The current password is cup."

The wall disappeared in an instant when he said the password. When they walked in they could so a very neat and comfortable looking common room. The only clue you'd have that ir was down in the dungeons are the stone brick walls. The floor was covered with silver carpet and near the fireplace you could see the Slytherin symbol: a large green shield with a silver border and a silver serpent that shaped into an 'S.' The room was also decorated with several tables where students could do schoolwork and very comfortable-looking couches and chairs.

"Maybe I don't regret asking to be put her after all," Harry whispered to Violet.

The prefect walked toward the entrance to two spiral staircases that were right next to each other. "Girls go to the left, boys on the right. Find the door with your year written on it and you'll find your bed with your items transported from the train. Good night."

Harry and Violet walked toward the staircases and said, "'Night" in unison and split off up their separate staircases. When Harry walked into the first year room he found five four-poster beds lining the wall. On the foot of the beds there were trunks with bright silver letters forming the owner's last name. In order from left to right there was Nott, Jakobsynn, Potter, and Crawderth, Zabini.

"We can introduce ourselves tomorrow, said a black boy with very chiseled features who sunk into the bed labeled Jakobsynn. Everyone agreed.

* * *

Harry was in Madame Malkin's getting fit for robes and beside him was a blond boy doing the same thing.

"So what house are you going to be in?" the boy asked.

"Er—" said Harry, feeling dumber and dumber by the second.

"Well of course you don't really know until you get there, do you? But I'm going to be in Slytherin, as my entire family has been. But imagine being in Hufflepuff. I'd leave, wouldn't— holy shit that's a large man!" he said pointing out the window.

Hagrid was standing there grinning through his beard holding two ice cream cones to explain why he couldn't come in.

* * *

"Harry," said a voice that was all too familiar.

Harry picked up his glasses from his bedside table and put them on and a girl with deep crimson hair came into focus.

"Morning, Vi. Are you allowed up here?" Harry said.

"If I weren't there'd probably be some sort of spell preventing me from doing so. Let's go."

"Go where? Vi, the sun's not even peaking yet."

"I know, but Mum will have a fit if we don't write to them as soon as possible."

"True. Go find us a table to write the letter at while I get dressed," Harry said groggily.

Harry gathered his bag and loaded it with two rolls of parchment, a couple of quills, and an ink well. He didn't know what classes he'll have today so he decided to rush up here to pick up the required ones as soon as he got his schedule.

When Harry got downstairs he found the room nearly empty except for a few people with the same mindset as Violet, who had found a table surrounded by four soft-looking armchairs with backs almost tall enough for Professor Hagrid to lean his head against. Harry pulled one of the chairs to be right next to his sister and sat down.

After they'd written the letter they left the common room with the intention to send it. But they had no idea where to go. They decided to hang out in the common room until more people went off to breakfast.

They entered the great hall thirty minutes later and began eating their porridge.

"This pumpkin juice is great, but I really miss Nancy's milk," said Harry. Nancy was one of the cow's that the Potters own. In Harry's opinion, she produced the best tasting milk.

"Yes it is rather good," Violet said longingly.

Halfway through breakfast an elderly man with a rather large stomach came walking up and down the Slytherin table handing students their schedules.

"Violet Potter," he read off of the top of the stacks of paper. Violet looked up at him and he handed it to her. "You look just like your mother. Except your eyes. You've got your father's. I had the pleasure of teaching them myself, you know. They even invited me to their wedding. I was wondering when I'd get to see a little baby Potter in here. I'm pleased but surprised to see you're not in Gryffindor like they both were. Can't wait to see if you've got your mother's knack for potions."

"Thanks Professor—" she said.

"Slughorn, dear. Well I'll see you in my class Wednesday. Now who's next—? Harry Potter? Twins? Oho!" Several people looked up. He seemed more excited than Ollivander was to sell Harry his wand. "You look just like your father, but with your mother's eyes. Funny how that works out, isn't it? Here's your schedule. Well I'll see you both on Wednesday, Violet, Harry." He moved on and started giving other students their schedules.

"Herbology with Ravenclaw, charms with Ravenclaw, lunch, History of Magic with Hufflepuff, Transfiguration with Hufflepuff. That's today. Tomorrow there's Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts with Gryffindor, lunch, Transfiguration, Charms. Wednesday we've got Defense with Gryffindor, Potions with Gryffindor, lunch, Charms, History of Magic, and Astronomy with Hufflepuff at night. Thursday Defense with Gryffindor, Transfiguration with Ravenclaw, lunch, History of Magic, Flying with Gryffindor. Friday there's double Potions, lunch, Defense, Herbology, and Astronomy at night again." Violet read out their schedule out loud.

"Well let's go get the books we need for today," Harry said. But before they could get up, hundreds of owls came flooding in through the windows near the ceiling of the great Hall. Their parents' owl, Dusty, came fluttering down toward them with a large brown envelope addressed to both Violet and Harry. Violet stroked Dusty who nibbled on toast and then flew off.

"We should have given him our letter!" Harry said.

Violet smacked herself on the forehead. "Duh! Here we are wondering where the Owlery is and Dusty comes straight to us. Well let's open it."

Harry tore open the envelope and found two pieces of parchment in it.

 _Dear Violet and Harry,_

 _I know first hand how difficult it is to get around Hogwarts. I was late to every class for the first week of my first year. So I'm entrusting you two with the Marauder's Map to help you navigate from class to class. Do not let anyone know you have that, especially your mother. To operate it, say "I solemnly swear I am up to no good" after tapping it with your wand. It'll show you the locations of everyone on Hogwarts grounds and every single room. It'll also show you shortcuts and secret passages as well as the trick steps that there. When you're not using it, say "Mischief managed" after tapping it with your wand. This'll make it go blank and it'll appear to be nothing but a spare bit of parchment. Again, do NOT let anyone know you have this, ESPECIALLY your mother!_

 _Prongs_

The other piece of parchment seemed much older and battered up. Harry and violet took off with the map to find the Owlery, which took no time at all with its help. The owlery was filled with countless owls of different sizes of colors. Hedwig stood out amongst the rest due to her being the only one snowy white. As soon as they walked in, she fluttered down and landed on Harry's arm.

"Give me the letter," he said to Violet while stroking Hedwig. Violet obeyed and Harry tied it to Hedwig's leg. "Take this to The Trinity," he told her. As she flew off, Harry and Violet headed back downstairs toward the dungeons to retrieve their books.

Harry opened his trunk and didn't have to look long for his required books. They were all lying next to each other, spines facing up. Harry pulled out The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 1, A History of Magic, A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, and Magical Theory. Harry wasn't sure what class required that last book but his first guess would be Charms.

Harry's bag felt considerably heavier but it wasn't too much of a burden due to the enchantment his mother put on it.

Harry and Violet walked down the grounds to where there were multiple large greenhouses and found several other students already there.

"Welcome to Herbology. I am Professor Sprout and will be teaching you everything you need to know about growing and caring for all sorts of different plants. This is a practical class. There will be no book reading note taking. The only writing you'll do for this class will be done after class is done with. First things first, every time you walk to this class the first thing you'll do is don your dragonhide gloves. But they won't be necessary today as we'll not be entering the greenhouse.

"We'll be starting simple. Today we'll be starting by learning the fire-making charm. This is essential to dealing with many of the plants we'll be studying this year. Now does anyone know the incantation for the fire making charm?"

Harry raised his hand slowly, as to savor the moment.

"Mister—"

"Potter, Professor."

"And the incantation?"

"It's incendio. Just flicking through the book and notice the words 'fire' and 'simple.' What can I do but remember it?" a couple of people laughed.

"Excellent. Five points to Slytherin. But we'll do without the further comments in the future, Mr. Potter."

"I don't think we will," Violet muttered so Professor Sprout couldn't hear.

"So here is the spell done correctly. Copy my wand movements and pronunciation exactly. _Incendio_." At the point where her wand was aiming flames erupted, that died away with a flick of her wand. "Who would like to try it first?" Several hands shot into the air. "You, Mister—"

"Corner, Professor."

"Well go ahead."

He pointed his wand at a spot in the grass and said, " _Incendio_." A small singing noise could be heard but nothing else happened.

"Hmm. We'll come back to you. Anyone else care to try? You miss—"

"Patil, Professor."

"Go ahead."

" _Incendio_." a tiny orange flame appeared but died away quickly.

"Anyone else—"

A large fire erupted in the middle of the grass, but no one had said a word. Professor Sprout stood there in shock for a brief moment but then flicked her wand and the fire disappeared.

"What was that?" Professor Sprout demanded.

To Harry's surprise, Violet slowly raised a shaky hand.

"Miss—"

"Potter, Professor," Violet said with a small voice.

"You two are twins?" she asked, momentarily forgetting about the enormous flame that had erupted moments before.

"Yes. I was just practicing the wand movements and going over the pronunciation in my head and it erupted right where I had my wand pointed," Violet said, "I'm sorry," she added.

"Sorry? Twenty points to Slytherin! Never in all my life have I seen a student perform nonverbal magic on their very first spell! And that was some flame you produced, too!" Professor Sprout said happily.

Violet looked awkward at this praise. "Thank you, Professor."

"You're welcome dear. But everyone stand back. Let's see if you can pull that off again. Try to tone it down a little though."

Violet waved her wand and a flame, not nearly as big this time, appeared where she pointed it.

"Oh, bravo! Bravo! And you managed to control the size of it. Take another five points!"

The next people to succeed in casting the spell were, Jakobsynn, a couple of Ravenclaws Harry didn't recognize, and then Harry, who got it first try.

By the end of the period everyone in the class had managed to master the spell, and while it appeared some people had tried, no one succeeded in pulling off nonverbal magic.

Harry gave Violet the map to let her guide them to Charms, being that Harry was the one to do it for getting to both Herbology and the Owlery. As they walked up, Violet said, "Fitting. Come into school and the first spell they teach Harry Potter is a fire making charm." Harry merely smirked.

"Seriously, how the hell did you do that?" he asked her.

"I don't know. It was an accident. Like I said, I was just practicing the wand movement and saying the correct pronunciation in my head and it happened. I honestly have no idea." Harry dropped it. He knew that his sister would never keep something from him.

"Alright, is everyone here? Let's start with roll call!" squeaked the tiny Professor, who judging by the name written on the blackboard, was Professor Flitwick. "Potter, Harry!"

"In the flesh," said Harry.

"Potter, Violet."

"Here."

He stared at the twins for a second before continuing. When he called the last name, he started on his speech.

Welcome to the art of charms. This class will teach you various different spells you'll find useful throughout not only your Hogwarts career, but throughout your entire life. Some of the spells we'll be learning include the levitation charm—" he flicked his wand and a book flew around the room before it landed neatly on a stack on his desk. "— The summoning charm—" Another flick and an apple flew off his desk into his hand. "— and the enlargement charm." He summoned a book and dropped it, pointed his wand at it and it grew to be the size of the student desks. "One of the spells you'll find yourself using most often is _lumos_." The tip of his wand now held a very bright light.

" _Nox_." The light went away. Everyone did it first try, Violet did it nonverbally.

"Now that hardly counts as a spell. It's the easiest one you'll ever cast. But let's start with the simple spells and work our way up. We'll be learning the Severing Charm." Flitwick summoned a rope, said, " _Diffindo_." The rope was cut cleanly in half. "Ropes are up here. Practice on your own."

Harry and Violet collected their own ropes and began to attempt the spell. When they'd gotten the pronunciation and wand movements right, Professor Flitwick walked over to check on their progress.

"Let's see you try," he said to Harry who then cleanly cut his rope in half. "Very good! Now you." He turned to Violet who cut her rope nonverbally.

Flitwick gaped for a second then said, "Are you actually a first year? We don't start teaching nonverbal magic until sixth year! Ten points to Slytherin!"

"Yes she's discovered this little hidden talent, sir," Harry said.

"Oh you certainly are a Potter!" He walked off leaving behind a pleased Violet and an offended Harry.

"Carry on like this and we'll have filled our hour glass by the end of the week," Harry told her.

After lunch the Slytherins headed to History of Magic with the Hufflepuffs. The twins' first impressions would be that this would be an interesting class because it was taught by a ghost. On the blackboard you could just barely make out the name, "Professor Binns." Any idea that this class would be interesting immediately left their heads when class started.

The students fell into a stupor as he began reading off of a book in front of him and they were expected to take notes. No one did and Binns didn't seem to care nor notice.

Most of the class was asleep, including Violet, and everyone else was finding something to occupy themselves with.

Harry was twiddling his wand between his fingers and taking in Binns's words subconsciously.

The Slytherins and Hufflepuffs headed to Transfiguration excitedly but were soon disappointed as they wouldn't be getting into the interesting stuff later.

McGonagall called roll and also paused at Violet's name. "More twins, and of James Potter, no less. Let's just hope you're not as bad as the Weasley twins," she said.

"Hey, where's that Malfoy kid? He was sorted to Hufflepuff, wasn't he?" Violet whispered.

"Why? You fancy him?" Harry said.

"Please. If I'd fancied him I'd have noticed his absence a lot sooner."

"Miss Potter," said Professor McGonagall, "if you don't mind, I'm trying to introduce you to the art of Transfiguration. As I was saying, Transfiguration is a very complex and dangerous branch of magic. It requires the utmost concentration and I will not tolerate silliness," she glanced at the twins again. "Most days we will be practicing practical magic but this week we need to focus on the information and knowledge you need to know to perform these spells. Wands away, take out your book and write down everything I say to."

"Do they hate us? First day of school and we've already got four essays!" Violet said.

"It's too bad Neville and Ron aren't in the same house as us," Harry said. "Guess we should get started on this homework."


	4. Hidden Talents

Lily and James were sitting at the dining room table having a romantic date.

"This is really nice. I miss this. How come we don't do this anymore?" Lily said to her husband.

"Well this is the first time we've been alone since the twins were born. I miss this too. It'so so nice to be with Lily Potter, and not 'your mother,'" said James.

"Yes. It's nice to take a break from being parents so we can be husband and wife instead. You know what? We don't have anyone to walk in here unexpectedly," Lily said while sipping her firewhiskey.

"What were you thinking?"

"I'm thinking we—" Lily's hands went to her blouse and she began to unbutton it. "— finish our dinner naked, then have a little adventure on the couch."

"We can make us much noise as we want," said James while taking off his shirt.

"Yes we can." Lily had completely removed her blouse. "And if you want me to scream, you're going to have to make me."

"Challenge accepted." They stood up and began making out, both completely topless and they slowly made their way to the couch.

Several minutes later, James stopped what he was doing just long enough to hear a pecking at the window from the kitchen.

"Dammit!" Lily said, while trying to get up.

"No, you wait here. Replace me with your hand while I go and get the letter." James walked into the kitchen to see a snowy white owl looking at him for a brief moment before she moved her wing in front of her eyes.

James opened the window and Hedwig held out her leg. The instant he'd untied the letter, she flew off. She was probably disgusted at the sight of a completely nude James and the sounds Lily was making in the living room.

James walked back into the living room and threw the letter on the floor before picking up where he left off.

An hour later Lily and james walked back into the kitchen looking very pleased and wearing their night clothes.

"Let's see—" Lily had torn open and read the letter.

"What is it?" James said. She thrust the letter at her husband. He unrolled it and saw very neat and small handwriting that was clearly his daughter's.

 _Dear Mum and Dad,_

 _We've made it to school okay and made a couple of friends on the train. Feast was amazing. Our beds are even more comfortable than the ones at home._

 _You're not going to like what I'm about to tell you, but please don't be mad. We were sorted into Slytherin. We were surprised at first but we've come to terms with it. We hope you can too. We know how proud you both are to be Gryffindors._

 _Also, Dawlish Senior is now our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. I thought he was still an auror. Do you know anything about that?_

 _Write back soon, please. Love you, miss you._

 _Violet and Harry._

Under their signatures there was a very sloppy and hastily written message from whom James immediately knew to be his son.

 _It's all Violet's fault._

"It's not too terrible. It's just a different group of people and colors," said Lily.

"Yes, we'll still love them the same. They'll still be just as good at magic. But I spent every year while we were at Hogwarts making sure Slytherin didn't get the house or Quidditch cups! Now I have to encourage them to do the exact opposite."

"James, as long as our kids are in Slytherin then that's the best damn house at Hogwarts."

"You're right. As long as they're proud to be Slytherins then we'll be ashamed we were ever Gryffindors."

"James?"

"I know."

They exchanged a glance that spoke a thousand words. They actually believed the bullshit they just spewed. _Padfoot isn't going to be happy_ , James thought.

"Well I guess we'd better write back," he said.

* * *

The class Harry had been really excited for came the next day after Herbology. Defense Against the Dark Arts was the class where you'd be learning jinxes and protective spells.

Harry and Violet walked into the classroom and sat at the table with Ron and Neville. In the table next to them, Harry noticed the pretty girl from the train. Harry remembered her name to be Hermione from the sorting. Harry's hands rose to his hair and ruffled it up to make it look even messier. Violet snorted.

"I can't believe you two are Slytherins!" Neville said.

"Neither can we. You can blame Vi, though," said Harry.

"You know I didn't _make_ you ask the hat to put you in Slytherin," Violet hissed.

"You two _asked_ to be in Slytherin?" Ron gaped.

"No, I didn't ask! I just put on the hat and it told me where to go. _Harry's_ the one who asked."

"You must really love your sister to put yourself through seven years of being a Slytherin." Ron said.

"You know, it's not that bad. The common room's really close to the entrance hall, the carpet is _extremely_ soft. There's nothing but comfortable furniture in there. _And_ , we don't have to rely on a fucking painting to get in," Violet said.

"How do you know about that?" Ron said.

"Our parents were Gryffindors. They told us countless stories about being locked out of the common room because the Fat Lady wasn't there, and then they were given detention from Filch because they were out past curfew," Harry explained.

"Well I guess not _all_ Slytherins are bad," Ron said.

"Good evening, class. I am Professor Dawlish. I will be your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher from now on. In this class I'll be showing you the effects of some of the most gruesome dark spells I know of and how to defend yourself against them. Now, for roll." Dawlish didn't pause at Violet's name because he'd already met them before.

"I'm going to start you off with a basic jinx. Would anyone like to volunteer to be a dummy? It's completely harmless."

No one raised their hand for several moments so Harry reluctantly raised his.

"Yes, Mr. Potter. You'll be subjugated to the Jelly-Legs Jinx. Tell me when you're ready."

"How am I supposed to be _ready_?" Harry asked.

" _Locomotor wibbly_." A clear beam shot through the air and hit Harry in the chest. His legs began to shake before he collapsed and fell to the ground.

"So if you recite the incantation exactly as I have and get the correct wand movement, you'll successfully remove your victim's ability to control their legs. Before I pair you up, I need to teach you the counter-curse. This'll work for most spells. _Finite_." Harry stood up. "Now, get with a partner and practice both spells."

By the end of the day, Harry, Hermione, Jakobsynn, and Neville were the only ones who managed to produce the Jelly-Legs Jinx. No one could do the counter jinx.

"Your homework. Practice and give me six inches on the proper wand movement and pronunciation for the counter curse. To be handed in on Friday. I will expect you all to have mastered both spells by the end of the week."

After Charms that day, Harry and Violet headed to the library where they'd tackle their homework with Neville and Ron. This turned out to be a bad idea because they were so deep in conversation that their quills hardly touched the parchment.

"You know that Malfoy kid?" Ron asked them.

"Yeah. I slipped a chocolate frog out of his pocket," said Violet.

"He left."

"What?" said the other three. Neville looked pleased to be included in Harry and Violet's "weird talking at the same time thing." Harry remembered the dream in Madame Malkin's. This couldn't just be a coincidence.

"His father was absolutely _furious_ that he was put in Hufflepuff. He pulled him out the second he received the letter. He's being sent to Durmstrang," said Ron.

"His dad sounds like a real prick," said Harry.

Several minutes later the topic turned to Violet.

"What's up with that snake? I normally don't like them but he's really cool looking," said Neville when Felix slithered out of her sleeve onto the table.

"Our parents were going to get me an owl along with Harry, but I saw him and he was just so pretty. And he was staring back with those kind, blank eyes. I asked them to get me Felix instead."

"Why'd you name him Felix?" Ron asked.

"He's my— er— lucky charm," Violet said suspiciously. She still wasn't even considering tell Harry about the journal or the enchantment protecting the Felix Felicis. Harry noticed her behavior and raised an eyebrow but didn't push it further.

"Anyways, he's really intelligent. He's smarter than our cat who's part-kneazle," Violet said.

"But what's with his eyes? Is he blind?" Neville asked.

"I thought so at first but he has this thing where he tightens around my wrist and stares pointedly at something I've forgotten. Lately he's even been telling me if I've misspelled something as well."

Felix slithered toward Harry who began petting him. "He really likes Harry, for some reason. I don't get it. Harry's not shown the same amount of liking back," Violet informed the other two.

"What's he doing?" Neville asked nervously when Felix stiffened and started toward him.

"He's deciding whether or not he likes you," Violet said.

"And if he doesn't?"

"He'll go off to someone he does like. He's completely harmless."

After several seconds, Felix relaxed and rested his head on the back of Neville's hand. Neville began petting him. Felix also later judged and decided he liked Ron too.

When Felix went up Violet's sleeve again, the subject changed but it was still on Violet.

"There have been some rumors going around about you, Violet," Ron said.

"You two can call me Vi," she said.

"Okay, Vi. People have been saying that you can do nonverbal magic already. Is that true?"

Violet couldn't contain a smile. "Yeah, it's true. I guess I'm some sort of prodigy."

"For now," Harry said. "But when we're out of Hogwarts everyone our age will be doing nonverbal magic."

Violet glared at him. "He's just jealous that I can do something else better than him. _He's_ used to being the 'gifted' one."

"That's not true!" Harry said, rather unconvincingly.

"What else are you better than him at," Neville inquired.

"Persuasion for one." Violet locked her fingers under her chin, smiled, and batted her eyelashes at Neville and Ron, who both blushed. "I'm a lot sneakier than he is."

"Her footsteps literally make _no_ sound, even when she's running," Harry said.

"Where's my wand?" Ron said, alarmed.

"And she's an excellent pickpocket," Harry finished. Violet handed Ron back his wand.

"But which of you is better at magic? You know, minus the nonverbal part."

"That's all Harry," Violet said just as Harry opened his mouth.

"We've learned like four spells so far!" Harry argued.

" _We've_ learned four spells so far. But how many have _you_ taught yourself?"

"Alright, fine. I'm better than you at magic."

Ron and Neville exchanged befuddled glances.

"You two are weird," Ron said.

"How so?" Harry asked.

"One second you're mad about one another being better than each other at things—" Neville said.

"That was all Harry. _I'm_ able to admit when he's better than me at something," Violet said.

"And then you're upset because you _are_ better than her at something," Ron finished.

"I'm not upset. I just don't like getting praise I don't deserve," Harry said.

"Well fine. Let's praise you for something you do deserve credit for," Violet said.

"Like what?" Harry asked.

"Your memory."

"Huh?" Neville asked.

"He just soaks up every bit of information, even if he isn't trying to. Watch. How many stains did I have on my shirt on the way to Hogwarts?"

"Two," Harry said before he could stop himself.

"See?" she said. "He's going to get every question right on all of his exams."

"Why do you do that?" Ron asked Harry when he'd ruffled up his hair again.

"Do what?" he asked. Violet, who saw a pretty blonde walk in who she remembered from the sorting to be Hannah Abbott, knew exactly why he ruffles up his hair but didn't say anything. She felt obligated to, even though she could never suppress a snort whenever he did this.

"And why do you do that after he does that?" Neville asked Violet.

"You two are really thick, aren't you?" Violet said. Harry glared at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron said indignantly.

"If you two don't know, I'm not going to tell you," she put simply. "Let's actually try and finish this homework, why don't we?"

* * *

After a couple of hours they'd completed most of their essays and then they all stood up to go to the Great Hall. But when Harry had tried to stand up, he'd collapsed to the ground.

"What the hell?" Harry said while the other three were laughing.

"I finally got the hang of the Jelly-Legs Jinx," Violet said.

"Well unluckily for you, _Finite_ —" He stood up. " _I_ got the hang of the general counter-curse."

They walked down to the great hall and Violet said, "See you tomorrow," when Ron and Neville split of to the Gryffindor table.

"I don't understand why we have to eat at separate tables. Other than Jakobsynn and a few of the older Slytherins, most people in our house are dicks," Harry said.

"London Barsey and Jennifer Niley are pretty nice."

"Are they?" Harry asked, suddenly interested.

"Don't go getting any ideas. They actually are really nice and they don't deserve to have _you_ stomping on their hearts."

"All right, all right. I'll focus my attention on someone else for now." Harry stole a glance at Hannah Abbott at the Hufflepuff table. Violet rolled her eyes.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the competition." A pair of identical red haired third years walked over. Violet assumed they were the infamous Fred and George Weasley that Ron often talked about.

"What?" Harry said.

"Our little bro has told us some interesting stories about you two. From the way it sounds, you two are going to be challenging us for our title," said one of them.

" _Your title_? Please. My little sister and I will strip that from you by the end of the year," Harry said.

"How many times do I have to ask you not to call me that? You're thirty minutes older than me!" Violet hissed.

The orange-haired twins ignored this. "Is that a wager I hear?" one of them asked.

"Ye—" Harry began but was interrupted by Violet.

" _No_ , it's not. We'll strip you from your title of 'Most Troublesome Twins' but we'll be sharing the 'Most Troublesome Pair of Twins,'" she said.

"What?" said the Weasley twins at the same time.

"This school has many secret passageways, things/places that are banned, and many dicks that deserve a lesson," Violet said.

"What's your point," said the one on the left.

"Her point is, four heads are better than two," Harry said.

"Go on," said the one on the right.

* * *

"Oh shit," said Ron.

"Language!" said his older brother, Percy.

"What?" asked Neville.

"Fred and George," Ron said, pointing at his brothers standing at the Slytherin table, talking to two people.

"Are they talking to the Potter twins?" Percy asked.

Ron nodded.

"Well they better not corrupt them. From what I hear they're really talented so far. And that's only after two days of lessons. You hear the girl can already do _nonverbal_ magic? _I_ don't even learn that until next year."

"We know, Percy. We're friends with them. And no corrupting can be done to them. From what they've told us, they've already caused more trouble than Fred and George have at their age. Harry and Violet know about secret passageways that Fred and George haven't even discovered."

"It's literally the second day of class. How can they have learned the school like the back of their hands in two days?" Percy asked, astounded.

"I dunno. Let's just hope they're arguing and not teaming up."

Several people from the other tables turned to watch the conversation going on between the two sets of twins.

"Ooh. That's _definitely_ not good," Ron said when the four of them left the room as people had been trying to listen in on their conversation. "Go give them detention or something!" Ron snapped at his older brother.

"For what? They've not done anything wrong," said Percy.

". . .yet," muttered Ron.

* * *

Ron, Neville, Violet, and Harry walked together from Defense Against the Dark Arts to the class that Violet had been looking forward to most. For as long as Violet could remember, she'd always gone to watch her mother brew potions whenever she wasn't going on adventures with her brother. Her mother is a potions expert and Violet sought to be one too.

"Welcome to potions! In this class, I'll be teaching you how to extract the essence of certain organisms and bend their qualities to do whatever you need it to do. This branch of magic is so powerful, that you can create a liquid to manipulate the fates to your favor. I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death." Harry vividly remembered a dream he'd had the previous night where a hook nosed man said that exact same thing to the class. "Now, let me call roll and then we can get started," Professor Slughorn said to the class.

"As disappointed as I know you will all be, we aren't going to be brewing at all today. Today we have some note taking to do. If we can learn the basics quickly enough, we can probably begin to brew on your next class period. First thing's first, who can tell me the reason you're required to have a cauldron made of pewter and no other material?"

Hermione's and Harry's hands were the only ones that went into the air. Hermione had apparently memorized all of their course books by heart as she always raised her hand to answer every question given to her. While Harry didn't know the books by heart, he does flick through the books when he's bored and can answer a lot of the questions teachers give him too.

Slughorn called on Hermione who's hand went up first. Harry lowered his hand to his hair which he ruffled up and made even messier. "Pewter is the cheapest type of cauldron you can buy. It's ideal for starter brewing and can handle any potion in the first through fifth year curriculum. NEWT students are required to upgrade to brass as pewter is not a strong enough material to handle the complexity of the potions brewed in the sixth and seventh years," Hermione said.

"Excellently put. Miss Granger. Five points to Gryffindor. Why don't I hear quills scratching?" Slughorn said. "And let's ask a very difficult question just for the hell of it. Who can tell me what you get from adding the powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" This time, Harry's hand shot up first.

"You get a sleeping draught so powerful that is known as the Draught of Living Death." Harry hadn't read that anywhere. He remembered it from his dream about the hook nosed man.

"Very good, Mr. Potter. Ten points to Slytherin!"

Hermione scowled at him from across the room. Harry ruffled up his hair again. Violet somehow suppressed her usual snort.

Later that day at midnight, the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs had to go up to the tallest tower to study Astronomy.

"This is so stupid. How the hell is knowing whether or not one of Jupiter's moons is covered in mice going to help me with magic?" Harry said when they'd gotten up there.

"I agree. I think we should only be learning practical things, not idiocy like this," said Jakobsynn. "Oh, I'm Nick, by the way."

"Harry."

"Violet."

As it turned out, Astronomy didn't turn out to be that boring as they'd thought. The once incredibly shy Nick Jakobsynn turned out to have many great jokes that he seemed to be storing up to lighten the mood.

* * *

Harry was running up the staircase as fast as he could with Ron and Hermione trailing behind him, trying to keep up.

" _Rip, tear, kill,_ " Harry heard the disembodied voice say. He ran down the hall and saw red paint forming words on the wall that he didn't get the chance to read as he'd just woken up.

"The hell is with these weird dreams?" he muttered to himself. He rolled over and tried to fall back asleep.

After about an hour, Harry gave up on sleep and got dressed. He decided to get an early start on some of the essays he had yet to finish.

Harry walked downstairs with his bag and found his usual chair at his and Violet's usual table. He was surprised however to find Felix lying coiled on the table, clearly asleep.

" _What are you doing here?_ " Harry asked it.

However an even bigger shock came when Felix raised his head up and responded. " _You're a parselmouth?_ "

" _I am?_ " Harry asked, shocked.

" _How could you not know? I've only once met a witch who spoke my language and they were very well aware of what language they were speaking._ "

" _Violet?_ "

" _No. My chosen one is very intelligent, but she does not speak it._ "

" _Your chosen one? What does that mean?"_

" _I am a very rare breed of serpent. My ancestors were cross bred so many times that I feel I may be one of a kind. But I take after my most abundant blood, the horned serpent. My kind does not allow just any witch or wizard to tame them. We only show ourselves to people we like. But for one of us to truly be tamed and befriended, we must bind our soul to that of a witch or wizard we deem worthy. Very rarely does it ever happen. It's so rare in fact, that I don't even think wizards have any documentation of the occurrence. I feel I may be the first bound serpent in thousands of years. I was lucky to have met your sister,_ " Felix said.

" _Wait, you bound your soul to my sister's?_ " Harry asked incredulously.

" _Yes. It's hard to explain. But when your sister walked into the shop I looked into her eyes and saw through her. I invited her to bind her soul with mine, and in doing so she too saw through me. She felt a connection between us and subconsciously accepted it._ "

" _So you're saying you tricked her?_ "

" _No. Her mind made the decision. She could have just as easily denied it. But she hardly had any control over her magical capabilities when she bought me. She still has little control. So she is not aware of how strong the connection is. All she knows is that she loves me like kin, and I her._ "

" _Wait, so you two are in love? Like husband/wife love?_ "

" _No. It is an emotion so deep within her. She will never fully comprehend it. Let's just say that she loves me as she loves herself. She still has emotional availability for romantic involvements with other humans. We are not 'together' as you teenagers put it._ "

" _Are you sure she doesn't speak Parseltongue?_ "

" _Positive. I can see into her mind, it is one of the benefits of being soulbound. There is not a trace of my language in her understanding._ "

" _I've been really curious, what's up with your eyes?_ "

" _This tale dates back hundreds of years. A distant ancestor of mine is a basilisk. A basilisk's stare is fatal to anyone who looks it in the eyes. I've inherited this gene, but much weaker. My gaze will inflict complete and utter fear in those who look me in the eyes that lasts for days on end. However the witch that hatched me and cared for me was a parselmouth, like yourself. But she knew of the effect my gaze would have and made sure not to look into my eyes. Instead, she talked with me. I told her of my past and my ancestors—_ "

" _How? You were just a baby. How could you have learned all of that from birth?_ "

" _Serpents and humans are different in many ways. Upon birth, we do not need to learn, as humans do. We can of course, but we already know everything our ancestors did. Knowledge is passed on through our blood._

" _As I was saying, she talked with me. She did years of research aided by my knowledge. With my help she managed to invent a spell that she cast upon me. It completely nullified the effect of my basilisk ancestor and replaced it with emotion, like human's eyes do. The resulting effect was the change in color, but they still work perfectly. She died soon after casting the spell. I was discovered by the owner of the magical pet shop that your sister bought me from. You already know the rest._ "

" _You still haven't answered my most important question._ "

" _I haven't?_ "

" _What are you doing here?_ "

" _Oh. You see, I'd gone out to find food but there are enchantments blocking males from entering the girls' dormitory. It apparently works on snakes as well. I was just waiting her for Vi to come retrieve me._ "

" _You call her Vi?_ "

" _I told you, I can see into her mind. I know what she wants to be called._ " This gave Harry an idea.

" _Wait, my sister has been hiding something from me for the past few weeks. Do you know what that is?_ "

" _I know exactly what she's keeping from you, but I cannot tell you. She does not even know that I see into her mind or that you and I can communicate. I feel by telling you her secrets I'd be betraying her._ "

Harry looked out the window and realized that the sun was rising. Harry felt very lucky that no one came downstairs and caught him speaking parseltongue.


	5. The Half Blood Evans

Harry's first instinct was to tell Violet what he'd just learned but decided against it. _I'll tell her if she tells me what_ she's _hiding,_ he thought bitterly.

Harry pushed that out of his mind for now and thought of other things. They had Defense Against the Dark Arts first period and seeing as everyone in the class managed to do the two spells taught to them, they were to be learning something new.

Harry was also dreading the class at the same time as looking forward to it because of all the extra praise Professor Dawlish seemed to give to Violet for her nonverbal skills.

Violet came downstairs looking worried.

"Harry, I can't find Felix," she said.

"Calm down, Vi. He's right here," he responded.

" _You_ took him?"

"No. He was here when I got here. He went out to hunt and couldn't get back to your dormitory." Harry realized his mistake only after he'd finished saying it.

"Just a guess," he said quickly. Violet didn't seem altogether convinced.

"Why couldn't he get into the dormitory? He's climbed stairs taller than those before."

"There's enchantments preventing guys entering the girls' dormitory. Guess it works on snakes too."

"How come I can get into your dormitory but you can't get into mine?"

"Maybe the teachers don't trust boys. I can't see why," said Harry. Violet definitely could see why. Harry had just ruffled up his hair when London came downstairs.

* * *

At breakfast, Dusty zoomed into the Great Hall ahead of the others and dropped a note in Violet's porridge. He then began nibbling at a piece of toast as Harry stroked his head.

Violet ripped open the letter and read it out loud quietly.

" _Dear Harry and Violet,_

 _Don't be silly. We'd never be mad just because you were put into a different house than us. As long as you're proud to be Slytherins then we'll support you through and through._

 _As for Dawlish, he quit months ago. He lied in Diagon Alley so as not to reveal his personal matters to you. That's all you need to know._

 _We love and miss you too._

 _Mum and Dad."_

What most of the first years were looking forward to most was flying lessons which were to happen that afternoon. Harry and Violet had spent half their lives zooming over The Trinity. They were excellent fliers and thought those lessons were a waste of time.

"Alright everybody, stand next to a broom," said their instructor, Madam Hooch. "Hold your hands over them and say _up_."

Everyone did as they were told but very few brooms flew into hands. Harry's and Violet's jumped up with ease.

"On my whistle, kick off hard from the ground. One, two, three." She blew her whistle and everyone flew into the air. A lot of people were shaking and their brooms were swerving and one person fell off and hit the ground hard.

Madam Hooch had flown into the air with her students flew back to the ground and ordered everyone to do the same.

"I am taking Mr. Thomas to the hospital wing. Stay on the ground."

As soon as Madam Hooch was out of sight, Harry and Violet kicked off from the ground again and started racing each other around the Quidditch pitch.

Harry pulled out a roll he'd kept from lunch and threw it to his sister. They passed it around for a while until Violet dropped it on purpose. Harry pointed his broom straight down and zoomed after the roll. A foot from the ground, Harry pulled up and landed with the roll in his hand. The other students began applauding.

The next day at potions Professor Slughorn pulled Harry and Violet aside.

"I was upstairs yesterday and watching you two from a window," he said. "You're the best fliers I've ever seen. Look, I've gotten really used to seeing the Quidditch cup in my office. I don't want to see it go. The best players on the Slytherin team were seventh years. The team needs you."

"But first years aren't allowed to own brooms," Harry said.

"Quidditch tryouts are tomorrow at twelve. If Henry Young, the Quidditch Captain, thinks you've got what it takes to be in the team, I'll plead your case to the headmaster. "

"Really?" Violet said happily.

"Yes. Now sit down so I can get class started." He walked to the front of the room and said to the class, "Today we get to brewing. If you'll turn to page fourteen in your books you'll find instructions on how to brew a Happiness Drought. When you've finished, fill a vial with it, put your name on it, and bring it up to my desk. All the ingredients required were on your list."

The class all did as they were instructed. Violet opened the book and read through all of the instructions. Violet pulled out her things and read through the first line again.

 _Add and mix all the ingredients to a thick substance to before lighting your flame._

 _Wait, what?_ Violet thought to herself. _That's stupid. How are you supposed to mix your ingredients properly if the grindylow skin doesn't soften? You should light the flame to warm the cauldron. Then take it off the fire and add your ingredients._ Violet lit her fire and let it sit for a couple of minutes while she chopped her ingredients.

"Why did you do that? It says not to light the flame until after you've mixed the ingredients," her brother said.

"I'm trying something," she put simply.

"To botch up your potion?"

Violet ignored him and took her cauldron off. She added the ingredients and found them extremely easy to mix.

At the end of class she produced a potion that perfectly matched the description in the book. Harry's had a slightly green tinge to it and the smoke was way too thin.

After she'd filled her vial and brought it to the teacher, she returned to her desk and pulled out an ink and quill. She crossed out the instructions she didn't like and replaced them with her own.

"Aha! Look at this," Professor Slughorn said to the entire class. He was holding up Violet's vial. "Miss Potter has perfectly produced the Happiness Drought. Ten points to Slytherin. She really is Lily Evans's, Potter's I should say, daughter." Violet left the class feeling extremely pleased.

* * *

Harry was sat at a table reading an old copy of _Advanced Potion Making_ and felt extremely irritated with its previous owner.

But after a while he found the potion he was making to be very difficult so he heeded the book's advice.

"Can I borrow your knife?" he asked Hermione. She waved at agitatedly.

He took the knife and crushed the bean with the blade and a lot of juice spilled out of it. He collected it and put it in the potion.

It immediately turned to the color the book described. Harry's anger with the book's previous owner dissipated.

* * *

Harry woke up and got dressed. He headed to the common room to see if his sister was awake yet. She wasn't.

Harry only had a couple of essays that he needed done and he had all of today and tomorrow to do them. He decided to head to the owlery to see Hedwig.

Just as he was about to leave the common room, he thought of something and ran upstairs to get his bag. He went downstairs with his bag and pulled out parchment and quill.

 _Dear Dad,_

 _Make sure Mum doesn't see this. I have a private matter that I need to tell someone._

 _The other day I found Felix in the common room and he spoke to me. I understood him. I'm a parselmouth and don't even know how or why._

 _Do you have any idea what this means? I haven't told Violet this. You'll receive a letter from both of us soon._

 _Harry_

He then ran up to the owlery. Hedwig flew down and landed on his arm with her leg outstretched.

"Make sure only Dad gets this. And don't stop pecking him until he opens it," Harry told her while tying the letter to her leg. For some reason, Hedwig looked far too happy with the last order before she gave him an affectionate peck and flew off.

Harry rushed back to the common room to find Violet waiting for him impatiently.

" _Where_ have you been?" she demanded.

"Er— bathroom," he lied lamely. "Let's go to breakfast, shall we?" he added before she could scold him.

After breakfast Harry and Violet met up with Fred and George. They hadn't had a chance to since they'd first met.

"Alright, everything is set and we're ready to go," said one of them.

"Er— change of plans. We're going to have to do it tomorrow," Harry said.

"Why?" asked the other Weasley twin.

"We have Quidditch tryouts," Violet said.

"You're first years!"

"First years whose head of house gave permission to join the team if the Captain lets us," said Harry.

"Oh we're going to _cream_ the Slytherins if they've got two first years on their team."

"You're on the Gryffindor team?" Violet asked.

"Yep. Beaters."

"Well, care to make this interesting?" Harry asked.

"Oh it's already interesting. Let's say, eight galleons, three sickles, and four knuts."

"That's a pretty specific number. Is that all your savings?" Violet asked.

"From the past couple years."

"Tisk. We couldn't cheat you out of all your savings," Harry said.

"That's not cheating them," Violet said. "This is." She held up a money bag. One of them clapped a hand to his pocket.

"Hey!" He grabbed the bag out of Violet's hands.

The two Potters walked away laughing.

"So is the bet on?" one of them called after them.

"Nah," Harry said over his shoulder.

* * *

Harry and Violet walked onto the quidditch pitch and found a large group of Slytherins standing around the blonde prefect that had led them to the Slytherin common room. He was now wearing a green, circular badge with a silver border and a silver 'C' in the center of it under his prefect badge.

"You two! Potters! Slughorn has told me good things about you, I hope you won't disappoint. You're not allowed to own brooms so I've brought out a couple of the school ones," said Henry Young, who handed each twin an old broom. "Alright, we're going to start off by seeing who here can actually fly. Get on your brooms and give me three laps around the pitch!" Everyone mounted their brooms and did three laps around the pitch. Harry and Violet finished in the top ten. They could have done better but everyone else had better brooms than them.

"Now everyone line up! If I point to you, feel free to leave." Everyone obeyed. He walked down the line and pointed at people who stalked away with disappointed looks on their faces.

"You!" He pointed at someone further down the line. "What position are you interested in?"

"Beater," he said.

"Alright, stand over there. Everyone else interested taking the beater position, line up behind him."

"You! Position?"

"Dog— OH! Keeper."

"Over there, any keeper wannabes line up behind her." Harry made a mental note to find out her name as he ruffled up his hair.

"Potter! Male. Position?"

"Seeker," Harry said.

"Interesting. Over there, any seekers line up behind him." There was only a guy Harry didn't recognize who lined up behind him.

"Other Potter, over there. Everyone else line up behind her. Now, if you don't get the position you originally tried out for, _leave_. You will not be trying for any other position. Now, chasers in the air."

"Alright. Potter, Pucey, Jakobsynn. You're my chasers." _Must be Nick's older brother,_ Harry thought. "Montague, you're reserve."

Montague did not seem too pleased with this. "I was on the team last year!" He shouted.

"And now you're not." Montague looked as if he wanted to punch Young but decided he'd rather keep his reserve title.

"First keeper, up to the hoops!"

"Alright. Anderks, you're our Keeper. Bletchley, you're reserve. First beater, up in the air!"

"Derrick, welcome back. Bole, you're reserve. And now, for our new seeker. I've got the snitch from the final game last year here—" he pulled out an intricately designed golden ball with fluttering wings, "— and I'm going to release it. Simply put, whoever catches it gets the position. Whoever doesn't is reserve. Cover your eyes." Harry and the other boy did as they were told. After half a minute he said, "Up in the air. Catch that snitch."

Harry flew up into the air and began to circle the pitch, keeping an eye out for the snitch.

This went on for several minutes before Harry decided that he'd need to do more to impress Young than just catch the snitch.

The rest of the team had moved up to the stands to watch the two seekers battle it out for the permanent position on the team.

"Maybe this wasn't the best idea," said Violet. "This could take ages."

"If half of what I've been told is true, then this won't take long. Plus, the snitch has been caught before. It's damaged, not nearly as fast. Lost some of its charm. But catching the snitch isn't exactly what I'm waiting for."

"Well I hope you're going to have some other way of seeing this because Harry's just seen the snitch," said Julia Anderks. Indeed, Harry was zooming toward the ground at high speed with the other seeker right next to him, gaining speed.

Just when it looked as if Harry had it the ground, he pulled up and the other had smashed right into the ground. Miraculously, his broom was undamaged.

"Holy shit!"

"He's just a first year!"

"The fucking Wronski Feint!"

A few minutes later, Harry zoomed toward the stands with the snitch in his right hand.

"Welcome to the team, Potter!" Young said. "You can keep that snitch. Alright, let's get a small practice going. Our match against Hufflepuff is on the fifteenth of October. We need as much practice as possible if we hope to claim that cup again."

After about an hour of practice, Young headed them toward the locker rooms. "There's some really complex magic added to these rooms that I'm not sure even Dumbledore understands. You'll go into your respective locker rooms and find a locker with your name already on it. The robes have already sized themselves to fit you perfectly. Go ahead and try them on before going about your day." Before the twins could go into the locker rooms with the rest of the team, Young pulled them aside. "When do you think you two will be getting your own brooms?" he asked them.

Violet and Harry looked at each other. "We're not sure. We still have to wait for Slughorn to get permission from Professor Dumbledore for us to have brooms, then we'll need to mail our parents about getting them," Harry said.

"Are you loaded?"

"Er— yeah I guess you could say that," Violet said.

"Try and get the new Nimbus, if you can. A broom's only as good as its flier, but a flier is only as fast as its broom. And those extra features don't hurt either. I'm going to wait to assign our next practice until you two have your brooms. I want everything to be perfect and I don't want you getting too used to those shitty twigs the school provides. So please try and get them as quickly as possible. We've only got a little more than a month to get this team to its best potential."

"We'll see what we can do," Harry and Violet said in unison.

"Good. Now off you go. The sooner Professor Slughorn knows you're on the team, the sooner Dumbledore can give you written consent to own brooms."

* * *

Harry and Violet walked down to the dungeons to Professor Slughorn's office and knocked on the door.

"Aha! I'm assuming there's good news?" he said when he opened the door.

"Yes, Professor," they said in unison again. Their minds seem to be more in sync when they're overwhelmed with emotion.

"Well I've not got any plans right now. Let's go see Dumbledore right now, see what we can do for you."

"We get to come?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Why of course!"

Professor Slughorn led them down a long route and they stopped in front of a large stone gargoyle.

"Cauldron Cakes!" Slughorn said. Evidently this was a password as the gargoyle instantly sprung to life and leapt aside. A hidden stone brick door was receding inside the wall and there was a spiral staircase spinning upwards.

When they'd gotten to the top they were in front of an ornate double door with two golden lion-head knockers. Slughorn knocked one of them three times and they heard Dumbledore say, "In."

Harry noticed there were no door handles and wondered how to open the door before it opened by itself.

They walked in and saw a large circular room with many shelves and tables piled with books and odd-looking silver gadgets. The most interesting thing was the beautiful orange bird standing on a golden perch. Everything about this bird was magnificent, especially its head which was alight with fire where human hair would be.

Harry and Violet knew this bird to be Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, from what their mother had told them.

"What can I do for you, Professor Slughorn?" Dumbledore asked.

"These two first years hear have made their house Quidditch team. They need written consent to be alleviated from flying lessons, they're naturals, and to own brooms."

"Ah yes. I've been expecting this. Your father was an excellent Quidditch player. It would have surprised me had at least one of you not inherited that gene. I've already taken it upon myself to write up the papers." He walked around his desk and handed each Potter twin a very neat scroll.

"Thank you, Professor," they both said at the same time. Dumbledore looked oddly interested in that.

"Well if you'll excuse me, I've got to be going," Dumbledore said. "I'd love to stay and chat but I have business to attend to." He swept out of the room and down the staircase. Slughorn and the twins followed suit with a large gap between them and the headmaster.

Harry leaned down and seemed to pick something up. He ran after Dumbledore and said, "Professor, could I talk to you about something, when you have time?"

Harry would have expected him to ask why, but he didn't. "Of course, Harry. I'm available tomorrow at four. Come see me then."

Harry walked back in the direction of the gargoyle and found Violet walking toward him alone. Evidently Slughorn had gone of somewhere else.

"What was that about?" she asked.

"He dropped something," Harry lied. Surprisingly, she believed it.

"Well let's go write to Mum and Dad. They'll want to hear all about our first week."

* * *

Neville was walking down to the Great Hall for lunch when he heard a loud bang from further down the hall. He and other people went to investigate. But he noticed Violet running off down a different corridor. Her footsteps were indeed perfectly silent.

Neville hesitated for a moment and decided to join the rest of the school investigating the noise.

"Alright, alright! Not a single one of you is leaving here until I find out who did this!" yelled the caretaker, Filch. He was standing at the front of the group of students staring at a very innocent looking stuffed kitten. "Where'd the crimson haired girl go?" he asked suddenly.

No one answered. Professor Flitwick came down the hallway to investigate as well.

"Do _not_ go near that thing, Professor!" Filch said. "It explodes if you do, then magically regenerates."

"Oh. Well no problem, then." He waved his wand and the kitten vanished. Everyone was about to head off their own ways when there was an even louder bang, a puff of pink smoke, and the kitten reappeared, slightly larger this time.

Pretty soon the rest of the teachers were in the corridor. "Filch, can you please explain what's going on?" McGonagall said.

"It explodes, Professor!" Filch looked extremely happy.

McGonagall and the other teachers tried their own spells but it kept exploding and getting larger and larger each time.

"We'll have to close off this corridor until we figure out how to get rid of this," McGonagall said. She ushered the students out of the corridor and with the wave of a wand, chains appeared at either end of it.

When all of the students had entered the great hall for lunch, Neville and Ron noticed the absence of the Weasley and Potter twins.

"Do you think that was their doing?" Neville asked.

"Don't be ridiculous," said Percy. "That was some extremely complex magic on that thing. There's no way it could have been made by first or third years."

"Well maybe they found it and planted it there," Ron suggested.

"Could be," said Neville.

* * *

A couple hours after lunch, Harry was headed toward the headmaster's office by himself while constantly going over the ingenuity of their plan. But when Harry reached the door knocker, he forced the the thoughts out of his mind.

When Harry entered the room and saw Professor Dumbledore sitting behind his desk, he remembered the dream he'd had the previous night. He was on the Astronomy tower. Harry was immobilized while watching a jet of green light hit the headmaster in the chest. He fell back over the edge as if in slow motion.

"Sit, Harry." This was not an order. It was a request.

Harry sat down and noticed Dumbledore's piercing blue eyes that seemed to be x-raying him. "Hi, Professor," said Harry.

"Good evening, Harry," the headmaster replied pleasantly.

"I'm, er— you know about my sister's snake, right sir?"

"I am."

"Well— you see. He talked to me. And I talked back." Harry felt very strange saying this.

"Did he now?" Dumbledore asked as if they were talking about the weather.

"I was just wondering how I can understand Parseltongue. And why my sister can't."

"This is nothing out of the ordinary, Harry. Lots of people have been born with random gifts. Your sister, I believe, has a certain knack for nonverbal magic and from what Slughorn has told me, already has immense ease with potions, but that is only after one class of brewing. And _you_ , my dear boy, have a pretty neat memory."

"Er— yes. But how come me and Violet have so many of these special talents and no one else does?"

"How do you know no one else does?"

"I— er— I don't. But Ron, Neville, or Nick haven't shown or told us about anything cool they were born with."

"That's because they are used to them and do not think them unusual."

"Sir— do you have any unusual talents?" Harry felt dumb asking that question. Of course he does. He's Albus fucking Dumbledore.

"I am a parselmouth. I can do nonverbal magic. I am pretty good at potions. But all of those things can be learned. Don't go feeling strange about these things you're born with. Just think you have had a head start."

"Oh, okay. Er— thanks Professor. May I go?"

"Of course. Oh, and if you don't mind my asking, where did you find that kitten?"

"What?"

"The kitten, in the corridor not far from the Great Hall. Where did you find it?"

"How did you know it was me? And how did you know I didn't make it?"

"It's because I made it, Harry. And I know a lot more about the goings on around here than you might think." Instead of the scolding that another teacher would have given Harry, he received a smile and a wink. "And I do not think you should hide things from your sister. She is the closest friend you have. Best not intentionally ruin your relationship."

"Where have you been?" Violet asked.

"Dumbledore's office," Harry didn't even hesitate. He had decided to heed Dumbledore's advice.

Violet was surprised at both the fact that he was honest and where he was. "Why were you there?"

"I'm a parselmouth."

If Violet was shocked before, it was nothing compared to how she felt now. "You— what?"

"You know that morning you woke up and couldn't find Felix? He talked to me. And I talked back."

"I— how?"

"I don't know. That's why I went to see Professor Dumbledore, but he didn't tell me anything. Except that he made the stuffed kitten. He said something about lots of people are born with talents that can later be learned, and he called it a 'head start.'"

"Wait. When you say you talked to Felix, what did he say to you?" Violet was worried about Harry finding out about the journal. She was still completely determined to get it on her own. _But he told you the thing he was hiding from you. Why can't you do him the same courtesy?_ She ignored that thought.

"He told me his origin story. And he told me about the magic of horned serpents that he doesn't even believe wizards know about."

"But he's not a horned serpent," Violet said.

"He said that he's been crossbred so many times that he may be one of a kind. He said that the horned serpent is his most abundant blood and that's the creature he takes after most."

"Great. So now both you and Crookshanks have a better relationship with my snake than I do."

"I wouldn't count on that," Harry said.

"Why? What else did he say."

Harry looked as if he was about to answer but stopped himself from doing so.

"Harry?"

"Where is Felix?" Harry asked.

"He's in his tank in my dormitory, why?"

"I need to ask him something." Violet thought it so weird for her brother to talk about her pet as if he were human. Hesitantly, Violet retreated to her dormitory to retrieve Felix and returned a minute later.

She set Felix down on the table. "Well do your thing," Violet said. She was both nervous and excited about what they would talk about and to see parseltongue first hand.

Harry opened his mouth and Violet heard a strange hissing noise come out of it, but when Felix opened his mouth, evidently to reply, she could hardly hear a thing.

Apparently Harry was checking permission with the snake to inform Violet about what he'd been told because the minute they stopped talking, Violet still thought that was a strange thing to say, he embarked on a long explanation about everything he'd heard that night.

"Wait. He _bound_ his soul to mine?" Violet took no notice of Felix's reactions. She'd spent plenty of time talking to her snake to know that he understood English but could not speak it.

"Yes. He said you love each other."

"So we're soul mates and love each other," Violet said.

Harry laughed. "No. He said you're perfectly open to 'romantic involvement'—" Harry laughed again. Apparently he did not agree with Felix on that aspect. "— and said that you love each other like you'd love yourselves."

After Harry had told her everything Felix told him, Felix looked at Violet apprehensively. He needn't have worried because Violet was more affectionate for him than before and let him slither around her arm happily.

* * *

When the two Potters went down to lunch, they first met up with the two Weasley twins.

"So? Did everything work out?" Harry asked them.

"Went off without a hitch. Everyone thinks the main joke was the kitten you planted."

"Great. So when do you think Filch will take the bait?" Violet asked.

"Whenever he noticed you lifted his key."

"So that should be any time soon, shouldn't it?" Harry said.

"Oh, yes. In fact, we saw Filch headed toward there looking pretty furious. Most people think it's because he couldn't punish you for planting the kitten—" he pointed at Harry. "— beings he doesn't know it was you. But those people aren't even aware of what's about to happen." An evil grin spread across all four of their faces.

* * *

The next day, Ron found himself stuck behind a crowd of people on his way to his first class with Neville. Most people in the crowd were laughing.

"What's going on?" Neville asked.

"I dunno," Ron replied. All of a sudden Ron heard his brother's voice shouting over the crowd.

"Move it, move it! Step aside. I'm a prefect!" Percy shouted. When the crowd parted to let Percy through, Neville and Ron followed him and started laughing at what they saw.

Filch, the caretaker's arms were chained to the wall and he was thrashing about, nearly a foot from the floor. It was common knowledge that Filch polished those chains regularly in the vain hope that Dumbledore would allow him to use them as punishment.

But that wasn't the best part about this. On the left side of him were the letters painted in black 'S,' 'q,' and 'u.' On the other side of him was the letter 'b.' Apparently Filch was supposed to be the 'i.'

Rumors spread quickly throughout Hogwarts rather quickly. Within the next couple of minutes, people had cleared out, satisfied with what they saw, and more people who didn't usually go down that hallway filled back in.

Sadly, though, it didn't take long for the rumors to reach the ears of the Professors. McGonagall came and let Filch down before the first period of the day started. Neville and Ron silently agreed to congratulate the two pairs of twins the first chance they got.

* * *

Over the coming few weeks, Hermione Granger excelled at every class she took. But despite her efforts, she had to admit that she was not the best in every single one. Both Potters had their own area of expertise that greatly outshone Hermione.

The crimson haired girl was an expert at potions and Professor Slughorn wanted to make sure the entire class knew that. On the one day a week that the Gryffindors and Slytherins had classes together, Hermione would look over at the table where the Potters, the youngest Weasley, and the Longbottom boy sat to see the female Potter doing things that weren't mentioned in the book anywhere and then see her writing in her book.

 _The nerve of her_ , Hermione would think to herself. _Thinks she's smarter than Arsenius Jigger, does she?_

 _She probably is. Clearly what she's doing is correct as all of her produced droughts are Slughorn approved,_ she snapped back at herself. No matter what she'd say to herself, she still hated that Potter.

The other Potter, however, was a different story. He excelled at pretty much everything. But the only subject he was truly better than Hermione in was Defense Against the Dark Arts. He was always one of the first to master the spells Professor Dawlish taught them.

Every time the teacher asked a question Harry, who was leaned back in his chair looking as if he were at home, would raise his hand in the air in an attempt to be faster than Hermione. And every time he did this he looked cool while doing it. _I look like a total tool when I do it_ , Hermione would think. Despite the fact that she glared at him every time he beat her to the punch, she couldn't help herself but enjoy the way he messied his hair every time he noticed her looking at him.

Through her best efforts, Hermione could not bring herself to hate Harry Potter. And though she'd never admit it to herself, she seemed to rather like Harry too much. And even less admittedly she knew her hatred for his sister stemmed from how close the two were, silly as it was.

The one thing that Hermione didn't excel at in the slightest though was her ability to make friends. While some of the girls in her year were pretty nice to her, they weren't really her friends. They wouldn't make conversation to often and Hermione never had anyone to hang out with.

Even worse still was the fact that everyone thought of Hermione as a running joke. Apparently they agreed with her when she said she looked like a tool every time she raised her hand to answer a question. This was another excuse she'd try to use to bring herself to hate Harry. _They don't mock him when he answers questions._

But it didn't work. She knew the reason no one mocked Harry, apart from him not looking like a total idiot when answering questions, was the fact that everyone liked the Potter twins. Ever since their first collaboration with the Weasley twins, they were the hit of the school. Everyone from all years took it upon themselves to strike up conversations with them when they met them.

Even Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs like the Potter twins despite them both being Slytherins. Normally Slytherin house had a bad reputation for turning out dark wizards and normally had bad beef with the other houses, but pretty soon there were people wishing _they'd_ been made Slytherins.

Hermione would have liked to try to use this as a reason to hate Harry but it couldn't be. Harry and his sister both humbled themselves when other students praised them, which made them even more likable to the other students.


	6. Quidditch and Christmas

A/N: I've been working on this chapter for the past several days. I don't know why but it took me longer than the last several chapters combined. Well, hope you enjoy.

Oh and if you truly do enjoy reading my story and look forward to the next chapters, PLEASE review. I need feedback. And not everything in this story is set in stone. I haven't gotten everything planned out yet. If you give me ideas for the story that I like, I'll include them.

* * *

It hadn't been even a week after Violet and Harry had owled their parents letting them know they made the house Quidditch team for two very long brown packages arrived during breakfast. They'd taken them back to the common room and torn them open to find brand new Nimbus 2000's. Up until now, Harry and Violet had never owned their own brooms. When practicing at home, they used their dad's old brooms.

Young took no hesitation after he'd seen the packages and assigned a practice that day. Since then the Slytherin team had been practicing hard every other couple of nights. Harry and Violet took no complaints. They enjoyed being in the air and couldn't see why the other team members were so annoyed. But even still, after a few weeks, the team had shaped up to be pretty good.

To Violet's annoyance, the team wasn't the only one who noticed this. Several students from both the Slytherin and and other houses were constantly making time to go to the stands whenever the team was practicing. Young was pretty annoyed with this too.

"There should be a ban on students disturbing us while we're practicing!" he ranted. "How the hell are we supposed to concentrate when we have to endure those constant catcalls?"

Indeed, there were multiple first and second year boys that were whistling at Violet from the stands during every practice. This was one of the things annoying Violet the most. Harry too was annoyed at this, but for his own reasons.

 _Fucking hypocrite,_ she'd think despite the dislike of the attention she had herself. Harry too had countless female students in the stands gushing over him and he was enjoying the attention. Every other practice Harry left the Quidditch pitch with one of the girls, just to never be seen with her again after that day.

"I knew it. We're not even going to get to our third match and you'll have dated every girl in the first and second year," Violet told him one day.

"I wouldn't necessarily call it 'dating,'" Harry said. "More like a test run, to see if I'd actually like to date her."

Violet rolled her eyes. Felix opened his mouth and made a very faint hissing noise and Harry glared at him, but didn't respond. Despite the fact that Harry now knew that he could communicate with Felix, they rarely did so. Harry seemed more fond of the snake but he still didn't like him as much as Violet did.

Violet had thought through this strange talent Harry had and come to terms with it, even gotten to the point where she was glad that he had it instead of her. She'd decided that the connection her and Felix shared wouldn't be nearly the same if they were able to talk.

"That's pretty stupid," Harry said when she'd communicated this with her brother.

"How so?"

"Imagine if you and I couldn't communicate."

"Good riddance," she smirked.

After they'd finished their fourth class that day, Harry and Violet were walking down a corridor toward the Entrance Hall.

Harry noticed a pretty, blonde girl a little down the hallway they were in. He stopped his sister and said, "Do you love me?"

"What?"

"Do you love me?"

"Of course I do."

"Good. Do you trust me?"

"Not in the slightest."

"Good. Go on ahead. Hurry."

"What?"

"Quick!"

When Violet was a few feet away from the blonde girl, Harry pulled out out his wand and sent a beam at his sister who immediately fell forward.

Harry ran to her. "Oh my god, Vi!" Harry suppressed a grin as Hannah Abbott turned around to see what was going on.

"What happened?" she said.

"Someone's jinxed her! The bastard! _Finite_." Violet stood up and was forced to face her brother so Hannah wouldn't see her glaring at him.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked, in a pretty convincing concerned voice.

"Yes, I'm fine," Violet said, not bothering to sound convincing.

"Go on to our common room without me. I'm going to hang back and try to find the bastard that cursed you."

Violet turned on her heel and walked off.

Harry turned around and pretended to look for the person who'd jinxed Violet.

"Come out and face me!" Harry said.

"I think they're gone," said Hannah.

"Dammit!"

"That was pretty nice of you," said Hannah after a little bit of silence.

"All I did was perform the counter curse," said Harry. "She's my sister, what do you expect?"

"Still. Hey, do you want to maybe hang out sometime?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure. I'd like that."

When Harry walked into the common room and made his way to his and Violet's usual table, he seemed more happy than usual.

"Oh, my hero," Violet said in a bored voice.

"Listen, thanks," said Harry.

"You know what a pleasure it is to help you out with your 'test runs,'" she said in a sarcastic voice.

"I actually like this girl, I'll have you know. I think I might actually date her."

"For how long? Going to try and beat your previous record of three hours?"

"Ha, ha. Let's get started on Slughorn's essay."

Indeed, Harry and Hannah had ended up spending a lot of time together from then on and news spread quickly that Harry Potter was dating Hannah Abbott. Many of Harry's fangirls glared at their passing and stopped showing up to watch the Quidditch practices.

Young was semi-pleased about this but not entirely.

"Why couldn't _you_ start dating someone?" he asked Violet who still had guys calling out to her from the stands every practice. "It's the guys who're being the most distracting."

"I'm not going to start dating some random guy just to get those pricks off of my ass," Violet told him.

"Ah. Enjoying the attention, are you?"

"No! Not in the slightest. But I'm not going to just start seeing some guy I don't like just to get a quiet practice."

Young glared at her. "Whatever. Everyone, up in the air! I want ten laps as fast as you possibly can!"

In the final week leading up to the match against Hufflepuff, Young had them training every single day. Luckily though, the teachers were laying back on the homework a little in anticipation for the match. But they didn't stop giving it altogether. This gave the twins very limited free time which meant that their infamous pranks they were pulling in collaboration with the Weasley twins were put to a halt.

"Listen, you gotta make sure you win this match," said Fred. Harry and Violet had spent so much time with the pair that they'd gotten the hang of telling which is which.

"Why?" Harry asked skeptically.

"The whole school's raving about how good you are, and we want to be the one's to hit the bludgers that knock you off your brooms."

"Well we're just going to be glad to put Gryffindor at the worst loss they've ever had. I can see it now. It'll make the Prophet. Slytherin wins house cup, beats Gryffindor, five hundred to zero," Violet said.

"Oh is that what you think?" said George.

"Yeah, if it's a bad day," said Harry.

"Well we'll just see," said Fred. With that, they walked off.

* * *

The day of the Quidditch match Harry and Violet felt like they should be nervous, but felt extraordinarily confident. They'd practiced long and hard and knew they had a good chance of winning. Young shared their enthusiasm as he made his way toward them and told them to eat a hearty breakfast, an order they obeyed happily.

The rest of the team walked out onto the pitch wearing their emerald-green Quidditch robes to some cheering and booing.

Young stepped forward and stood face to face with the Hufflepuff captain. Madam Hooch stood between them. "Young, Rickson, shake hands," she said. They both did so, both putting as much force into the grip as possible. "Mount your brooms." She blew her whistle and all fourteen players flew into the air.

Lee Jordan, a friend of Fred and George's, was commentating the match. "And the quaffle is immediately taken by John Jakobsynn who passes it to Adrian Pucey who passes it to Violet Potter. She swerves through the other players and shoots—" there was a groan from the audience. "It's intercepted by Malcolm Preece who passes it to Heidi Macavoy who passes it back to Preece. Passes to Gilbert Rickson— Ouch! He's hit by Young's bludger. The quaffle is caught by Potter who passes it to Pucey, back to Potter, back to Pucey, he shoots, he scores! Ten-zero to Slytherin." There were cheers from the audience.

"How's it going, Potter? Name's Cedric Diggory," said the opposing seeker.

"Harry," said Harry who swerved away to keep him a little at a distance. He noticed that Cedric was following him, looking for signs of Harry spotting the snitch. He grinned to himself. _Going to have to take advantage of that,_ he thought.

"Macavoy, Rickson, Preece, back to Macavoy who shoots and it's blocked by Anderks. It looks like Potter number two has spotted the snitch!" Harry was zooming toward the ground at high speed with Cedric right on his tail. The other players had stopped to watch too.

There was a loud blast from Madam Hooch's whistle as she flew to the ground where Cedric now lay in a heap.

"POTTER PERFORMS THE WRONSKI FEINT!" There was massive applause from the audience. "He and his twin are the youngest players in a century and he's the only Hogwarts player to have ever pulled off that move. Breaking records all over." Harry had returned to circling the skies, his eyes scanning the field for the snitch. After a couple of minutes, Cedric returned to the air, fully healed up and there was a blast from Madam Hooch's whistle.

"And the quaffle is taken by Potter who passes to Pucey, Jakobsynn, back to Pucey, back to Potter, she shoots, she scores! Fifty-twenty to Slytherin."

"Where the hell did you learn how to do that?" Cedric asked. He sounded both impressed and annoyed.

"I taught myself," Harry said. Suddenly, he spotted a glint along the pitch and flew in the other direction. Thinking he was chasing the snitch, Cedric followed. Then Harry swerved and began circling again. The snitch had gone. He and Young had discussed getting in a lot of points in the first match so he was going to try and steer Cedric away from the snitch for as long as possible.

"Pucey, Jakobsynn, Potter, Jakobsynn— ow. He's hit by a bludger. Preece claims the quaffle, passes to Rickson, Macavoy, Preece, Rickson, he shoots, and it's blocked by Anderks. Potter claims the quaffle, passes to Pucey, Jakobsynn, Pucey, Potter, Jakobsynn, he shoots and is blocked by Fleet."

This went on for a while until Harry finally decided the score was high enough and flew after the glint of gold he'd just seen. Cedric flew after him but his broom wasn't nearly as fast enough as Harry's Nimbus.

"Unless he's feinting again, Potter's spotted the snitch. He ducks a bludger, continues forth and he caught it! Slytherin wins! Two sixty to sixty!" The team flew to the ground and the Slytherins flooded from the pitch to congratulate the team.

Violet left the changing rooms and made her way back to the Slytherin common room by herself. Harry'd gone to meet up with Hannah. The room was packed full of Slytherins who had set up decorations and nicked food from the kitchens for a celebration party.

Violet was chatting with a couple of her fellow first year girls when surprisingly, Harry had walked in only ten minutes after the party had started.

"Why aren't you with Hannah?" she asked.

"I broke it off," he said.

"Why? I thought you said you liked her!"

"I did. But she was being sore about the fact that we beat her house at the match."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Come on, let's celebrate. We're already two hundred points up!"

It didn't take long at all for the news to spread that Harry and Hannah had broken up. Unfortunately, this meant that he now had girls gawking over him again. But he didn't start his so called "test runs" this time.

"Harry, some of the girls are really pretty and they're gawking over you. It's so unlike you to just pass this up," Violet said.

"Why do you care, Vi? I thought you didn't approve of me going from girl to girl."

"I don't. I'm just wondering why you've had a sudden change of heart."

"It's none of your business."

"You're not still upset about Hannah, are you?"

"No." Violet couldn't tell if he was being honest or telling a really convincing lie.

Over the next several days it became abundantly clear that it was not the latter. Hannah had realized her mistake and tried to reconcile with Harry, but he shot her down every time. Every time he did so, he didn't seem hurt, more annoyed at the fact that she wouldn't just move on.

After not too long, Harry was mostly back to his pre-Hannah self but still wasn't seeing any of his fangirls, whose numbers had increased since the previous match.

On Halloween, Harry and Violet headed down to the great hall for the feast and were amazed by the decorations. The usual floating candles were replaced by jack-o-lanterns. There were live bats fluttering around the room and hanging off of the enchanted ceiling. The walls had been covered in different Halloween themed decorations as well.

On each of the tables, there were mounds of food that the twins had never even heard of before but smelled and looked delicious. They sat down and piled all sorts of different foods onto their plates and started eating as if their lives depended on it.

"That was so good," Violet said.

"I've never had such a good meal before. That tops the welcoming feast by a landslide," said Harry.

"Hey, you remember that one time that Mum took us out trick-or-treating?" Violet asked.

"Trick-or-treating?" asked Nick Jakobsynn. "What's that?"

"It's a muggle tradition. You go around knocking on doors in costumes asking for candy," said Harry.

"That's dumb."

"Yeah, it was. Most people just left out bowls with a sign that said 'just take one' so we took the entire bowl," said Violet.

"We only took one bowl full of candy," added Harry.

Nick laughed. "Nice. Is muggle candy any good?"

"There are some that are pretty sweet but they're all just boring things made only for taste. They don't do anything," said Violet.

"You said you go in costumes. What'd you two go as?"

"We put on some silly clothes that muggle children's books show wizards wearing," said Harry.

Time was flying by so fast that Harry and Violet could hardly believe that December was only two weeks away.

"Where did all the time go?" Violet asked.

"I know. I swear, we were celebrating Halloween just yesterday," Harry said.

"We're going to have to start thinking about presents, you know?"

"Yeah. I think we should send Nick some muggle candy. I figure he'd get a good kick out of that."

"Alright, one person down. Now what about Neville and Ron?"

"Well Ron says that Neville is really good at Herbology. Should think of some rare plant to get him."

"Yeah, we can start flipping through some of Mum's and Dad's books when we get home."

"By 'we' you mean 'me,'" Harry said. "So what about Ron?"

"That is an excellent question." They thought about this for a while.

"I don't know. We'll just have to have a run around in Diagon Alley," Violet finally said.

"Yeah. So what about Mum, Dad, Padfoot, and Moony?" Harry asked.

"Oh I've already gotten something for Padfoot," Violet said with a wicked grin.

"I'm guessing you're not going to tell me what?"

"Nope! Okay, so what about Moony?"

"Hey, I read about this potion that was recently invented called Wolfsbane. It's supposed to make werewolves able to keep under control while they're transformed. Maybe you and Mum can brew up a large batch of that and give it to him."

"That's a great idea! Moony'll love us!"

"And then there's Mum and Dad. They've already given us our Christmas presents," said Harry. "But what do we get them?"

"Wait, they did?"

"Our Nimbuses."

"Oh, duh. Well let's come back to that. Didn't Mum tell Sirius to invite Penelope and Mrs. Clearwater joining us for Christmas this year?"

"Oh yeah. I forgot about that. We can just give them some generic Christmas things. We don't know them too well," said Harry.

"Yeah. Just put together a couple of little care packages."

"Oh wait! I just thought of something for Mum and Dad!"

* * *

Violet and Harry were sitting in Charms on the last Wednesday before they left for Christmas break.

". . . a slight shimmer that you wouldn't even notice were you not looking for it. It's a simple charm that parents use to guard things from underage wizards. It's very easy for grown witches and wizards to get past, however. Now the incantation for performing this— Yes, miss Potter?" Professor Flitwick said when he saw Violet's hand in the air.

"How do you get past it?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, the purpose of this lesson is to teach you how to cast the charm, not get past it."

"Please, sir?" Violet put on a slight frown, raised her eyebrows, and widened her eyes.

"Oh, alright. It's a little more complicated than the charm itself, but it isn't too advanced. It's a useful spell for a lot more than just getting past the Teryhul Charm."

Violet left charms feeling extremely happy.

"Why did you ask him how to get the Teryhul Charm?" Harry asked.

"Oh I feel like you'll know pretty soon," Violet grinned.

Harry figured that this was a step in the right direction and dropped it.

* * *

Harry and Violet said bye to Ron and Neville and set off to meet their parents. Before they'd even seen them, they'd been pulled into a bone-crushing hug.

"I'm so glad to see you two again! Oh, it's been so long. I've forgotten how handsome you are, Harry. And how beautiful you are, Vi!" their mother said.

"I missed you too, not that anyone cares," their father said. Harry and Violet escaped from their mother and gave their father a hug.

"We missed you both too," they said in unison.

"Are we driving again?" Harry asked.

"No, we had to return the car, remember?" said their mother, she looked pretty upset.

"We have to take the Knight Bus," their father said.

"Cool!" said the twins.

"It's not. Not in the slightest," their mother said. The four Potters walked out of King's Cross and down the street until they abruptly turned down a pretty empty looking street. Their mother flung out her right arm and with a loud _BANG_ , a triple decker bus appeared out of nowhere.

"Get the hell on here, if you must," said an old man that appeared briefly at the entrance to the bus before retreating back to the driver's seat.

"Nice to have a warm welcome," their father said as they all got on board, Harry and Violet pushing their trunks.

The bus was decorated with living room chairs, most of which were knocked over. Their mother waved her wand and four chairs seemed to glue themselves to the floor. As soon as they sat down, the bus took off with frightening speed.

Harry looked out the window and could just make out the buildings flying by them. Occasionally an object would jump out of the way of the bus and then return to their usual places. Harry hadn't the slightest clue of how the magic on the bus works. It's incomprehensible to him.

With a sudden lurch, the bus came to a stop.

"Get the hell off my bus. It's the Leaky Cauldron!" said the bus driver.

"You can always spot a man who enjoys his profession," said their father. Everyone gave a small chuckle. Harry was the last one off of the bus, and the instant his second foot hit the sidewalk the bus shot off to who knows where.

"Four butterbeers, if you please, Tom," said their mother.

"Of course, Lily," Tom bowed and brought out four tankards which he filled with butterbeer. The family sat down at a table and began to talk.

"Well? How's school been so far?" their mother asked.

"We've already told you everything!" said Violet.

"I know, Vi. I just want an excuse to hear your voices some more. It's been so long." Violet and Harry rolled their eyes at each other.

"Well let's talk about Quidditch. Give us the details," their father said. Harry and Violet were more than happy to oblige.

"What have I told you about performing that dangerous stunt?" their mother scolded when Harry told them about the Wronski Feint.

"Mum, please! He's mastered it. There's nothing dangerous about it," said Violet. "For you, anyway," she whispered to Harry.

"So how do the brooms fly?" their father asked.

"They're amazing," said Harry. "They're much better than your old one."

"Yeah. They're extremely easy to control. You hardly even need to nudge it to get it to turn," Violet said.

"Tell me about the features."

"They're great. It vibrates when it can tell if you're about to collide with something, even if it's not in your path yet," said Harry.

"Yeah, and it seems to try and remember your flight patterns, It gets easier and easier to perform tactics every time you try them," Violet said.

They continued to talk for a while and then the talk turned to Violet.

"Well we haven't told you everything in our letters," said Harry.

"Like what?" asked their father.

"Like the fact that Violet's a nonverbal prodigy." Violet glared at him.

"Wait, what?" their mother asked.

"She hasn't muttered a single incantation all year and still masters the spells just as quickly as the rest of us," said Harry.

"How?" asked their father.

"Dumbledore called it a 'head start,'" said Harry.

"You spoke with Dumbledore?" asked their mother. _Oops_ , thought Harry. He still didn't want his mother to know about him being a parselmouth. He didn't know why.

Eventually he decided that he'd rather not have his mother be the only one who didn't know. "I'm a parselmouth," said Harry directly to his mother.

"What?" She looked at her husband who gave a fake surprised face, rather lately though. "And you knew?"

Violet looked at Harry who also tried to put on a surprised face but also failed.

"Harry owled me specifically and Hedwig wouldn't stop attacking me until I opened it. Harry said he didn't want you to know," said their father. Their mother seemed to accept the fact that her husband respects their son's privacy and turned to their son.

"Why didn't you want me to know?" she asked, sounding rather hurt.

"I hadn't even told Vi about it when I sent that. I just wanted to know why I can speak parseltongue and wanted as little people to know as possible," said Harry. "But then Dad never replied so I went to Dumbledore."

"And what did he say?" their father asked.

"I already told you. He called it a 'head start.'"

"Well if Dumbledore doesn't think anything of it, neither should we," said their father.

"Exactly," said Harry and Violet.

* * *

On Christmas day, Harry woke himself early and got dressed. Harry had gotten up and woken Violet every morning since they got back being as he couldn't do that while they were at Hogwarts.

"Vi! It's Christmas!" Violet stirred and then opened her eyes. After a couple of moments, she comprehended what her brother had said and shot up.

"Oh! Let me get changed," she said.

Twenty minutes later they found themselves outside with the animals.

"It's Christmas! Why do we still have to do this?" Violet asked. She was on her knees milking one of the cows.

"I know," said Harry who was milking another cow. "Wish we had a house elf."

About an hour later, Harry and Violet stored the several eggs and bottles of milk they'd just collected in a cabinet that was magically to keep its contents fresh.

"So when does everyone get here?" Harry asked. He was both excited about seeing his godfather and Remus again and a little apprehensive about what they'd say about them being Slytherins.

"They'll be coming over right before dinner," said their father.

"And while we're on the subject, have either of you met Penelope yet?" their mother said.

"No. We don't really know what she looks like, to be fair," said Violet. "Can't introduce ourselves to someone if we don't know what they look like."

"And she hasn't introduced herself to you?" their father asked.

"Nope," said the twins.

"That's odd," said their mother. Both their parents looked at each other concernedly.

"You know, ever since we won that first Quidditch match, our names _have_ been fluttering around school quite often," Harry said to his sister quietly.

"That is true. Why wouldn't Padfoot's step-daughter want to introduce herself to us?"

An owl flew threw the open window and dropped a letter on the table. Their father picked it up and read it. He looked up at his wife. "Jessica and Penelope aren't coming," he said to her.

"What?" she replied.

"It just says that they're busy," he said and showed her the letter.

"At least they had the courtesy to tell us before we started preparing dinner," she said. "I am going to have words with Sirius when he gets here."

"Uh, oh" the twins whispered to each other. Their parents didn't call Sirius by his actual name unless something serious was going on.

A few hours later there was a knock at the door. Their mother walked toward it and opened it to let Remus in. She hugged him and said, "Hello Moony. Come on in." He walked over and dropped four wrapped boxes under the tree. He then went over to give a hug to each of the twins and gave their father a one-armed hug too.

"Good to see you two again," he said to Harry and Violet. "So, how's school been so far?"

"It's been great!" said Violet and Harry.

"Yeah? You've been doing good?"

"Yeah. The spells have been really easy so far. The essays aren't too difficult, but they're tedious," said Violet.

"Hmm. I do remember a lot of long hours spent in the common room with a quill in my hand," said Remus.

There was another knock on the door and their mother opened it. Sirius walked in but didn't receive the hug that Remus did.

"Sirius Black, explain," their mother said dangerously.

"What?" he said defensively.

"The last time we've met either of the Clearwaters was before Harry and Violet could even speak." She led him to the living room where everyone else was and told him to sit in a chair.

"I— they're busy," said Sirius.

"Sirius, I've known you for most of my life," said their father. "I've never once heard you give me an answer that vague, for ten years straight, no less."

"Oh, alright. Jessica doesn't like you," said Sirius.

"Why?" asked their mother.

"She never gave me a specific reason. She'd just scoff every time I brought up either of your names."

"And why haven't you told us this before?" asked their father.

"Well I've been trying to change her mind and get her on good terms with you, but it never worked. And we split up about two years ago."

"What?" said their parents and Remus at the same time.

"We got in a fight. I wouldn't stop asking her why she hated you so much, then she stormed out. She cheated."

"How could you have hidden this from us for so long?" asked their father.

"Because that'd be admitting that it actually happened."

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," said Violet.

"Violet!" said their mother.

"It's okay, Lily. She's right. It was selfish of me to lie to you like that," said Sirius. Not long after, the conversation turned back to the twins and Hogwarts.

"So how've you been doing?" asked Sirius.

"Really good, so far. The main difficulty is the essays," said Harry.

"Ahh. Tutrius's infamous daily three footers, no?" Sirius asked.

"No," said Violet.

"Oh! Tutrius retired," said their father. "Old Milton Dawlish is their D.A.D.A. teacher now."

"Oh you lucky bastards," said Sirius. "Dawlish any good?"

"Yeah. He's not been too hard on us. Teaching us a lot of useful things so for," said Harry.

"It's getting cold in here," said Remus. Violet waved her wand at the fireplace and flames erupted there.

"Violet Petunia Potter! You know you're not supposed to use magic outside of school!" scolded their mother.

"How would the Ministry know? The Trace detects magic in the area. For all they know you just lit the fire," said Violet.

"Was that nonverbal magic?" asked Remus in awe.

"Yes," said Harry. "She's something of a prodigy."

"That's incredible!" said Sirius. "We were still struggling with that half way through our sixth year."

Violet looked pleased. They continued chatting for nearly an hour when their father finally said, "Dinner's ready!" Everyone ate greedily.

Violet and Harry were the first two to finish, although everyone else finished soon after. Everyone made their way to the living room and sat down. Violet started passing out the presents.

"Guests go first," said their mother. They had a tradition where everyone opened their gifts individually.

"After you, Moony," said Sirius. He tore open his first gift and revealed a large jug with a cork inside of it.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's filled with Wolfsbane potion," said their mother. "It's supposed to make you fully aware during your transformations and relieves you of the pain. It's from all four of us." Remus had tears in his eyes.

"Thank you!" he said. "This is amazing. I've never even heard of this before."

"It's a rather recent discovery," said Harry.

"Here I was thinking my gift was great," said Sirius. Remus set down the jug and tore open his next present which was very small. Inside was a pink marble. "I know how stressed out you get from your job so I bought this thing. It's called a Stinzler. If you hold it in your fist, it'll relieve you of any stress you have. There were multiple ones, but that one is supposed to last a long time."

"Thanks, Padfoot," said Remus. "Now open mine."

Sirius picked up a cylindrical package. Inside was a very neat scroll. Sirius unrolled it and a key fell onto his lap.

"I managed to pull some strings at the Ministry and got you your bike back with a permit allowing you to own and drive it if you get a muggle license," said Remus.

"Holy shit— sorry Lily— Moony. You are incredible, you know that?" said Sirius.

"I can be," said Remus with a smile.

Sirius tore open the present Violet had put her and her brother's name on. Sirius let out a bark-like laugh. He was holding a chew toy that muggles gave their dogs and a red and gold collar with the name 'Snuffles' engraved on it.

"You two are something, you know that?" Sirius said to the twins with a smile. They both grinned.

Sirius started on his next package which was a silver ring that had a very clear gem in the center. Inside the gem you could see a large black dog, stag, and a werewolf near a whomping willow.

"We know you're the one that enjoyed the full moons the most. I thought you'd like a little bit of a reminder," said their father. It was Sirius's turn to become teary eyed.

He put it on and looked up. "You Potters and your excellent gift giving," he said.

"Ours wasn't that good," said Violet.

"Oh yes it was," said Sirius. "Nothing quite like a good laugh."

"Well, you two now," said their mother.

"Oh, no. We're opening ours last," said Violet. The adults looked at each other skeptically. This was very unlike the twins.

"Alright," said their father. He picked up two identical boxes and handed the one with 'Mum' written on it to his wife. They both opened them and each held similar amulets with gold chains and an eye at the bottom. Upon closer inspection they realized that the eye was perfectly identical to their spouse's.

"Put them on!" said Harry. They obeyed. "Now put them over each other."

Curiously, their parents covered one eye with the other and they combined to form a round circle with a picture of Harry and Violet in the middle.

"Harry enchanted them," said Violet. "The pictures will always be perfectly identical to us. If I were to shave my head, which I wouldn't, the picture of me will have a shaved head too. And they'll age with us too. So—" she was cut off by a hug from her father. She could see her mother giving Harry a hug.

"These are perfect!" said their mother.

"It was Violet's idea, by the way," said Harry.

Their parents sat down and opened up a joint gift from Remus and Sirius. They revealed a beautifully decorated book.

"We hunted down a bunch of our old school friends and copied some of the pictures they had and put it in that scrapbook," said Remus. "I guess we were thinking along the same lines as you when you gave Padfoot that ring."

"This is great. Thank you," said their mother. Their father nodded and smiled. "Well, now you two."

Harry nodded at Violet and she opened up her gift from Remus. She was now holding a pair of emerald green gloves that were cut off at the tips. On one glove there was a silver 'V' and on the other was a silver 'P.'

"Your parents told me you made chaser and I thought you'd like a special pair of gloves. They're enchanted to resist water and give you a hardened grip. Should make it easier to hold onto your broom," said Remus.

"Thanks, Moony! These'll be a load better than the plain ones provided by the school." Remus smiled.

Violet opened her second gift and pulled out a thin book with a picture that wasn't moving. She also held a fabric pouch from which she pulled a metal object.

"It's called a butterfly knife. It's a muggle invention. You're supposed to do tricks to get it open. That book will show you how to do them. Let me see it," said Sirius. Violet handed it to him and he performed a pretty cool looking maneuver to get it open. "See?" he said as he handed it back. "They're pretty fun."

Harry opened an identical package with the same contents before starting on Remus's. He had given Harry a single glove identical to Violet's, but with a silver 'HP' on it.

"Snitches remember the person that first catch them and that's why seekers aren't supposed to wear gloves, so I only gave you the one," said Remus. "What hand do you catch the snitch with?"

"Er—" Harry thought about this for a moment. "Right," he said finally.

"Good. I wasn't sure, but I knew you're right handed so I made it left. It's the exact same as your sister's."

"Thanks, Moony. This is great." He and Violet then proceeded to two gifts with both of their names on them. They were just filled with different candy from Neville and Ron.

"Well now that gift giving is over we—" started their father.

"Wait. They haven't gotten anything from either of you," Sirius said to their parents.

"We got them each their own Nimbus 2000," said their mother.

"Seriously?" said Sirius.

"Yes. They agreed to not receive anything for Christmas or their next birthday, however."

"We did?" said Harry. Violet elbowed him. "I mean, yeah. We did."

"Wait, how come you haven't scolded us for being put into Slytherin yet?" Violet said to Sirius.

"Well I thought about it and decided that any house that you two are in can't be _that_ bad. At least you're not in Hufflepuff," said Sirius. The twins laughed.


	7. The Journal

A/N: Sorry this chapter is a little short. I really wanted to get it out tonight and I'm pretty tired right now. Plus I found a good spot for an end of chapter

I only just read Cursed Child and apparently the trolley witch is some weird immortal demon lady. Just for the sake of keeping my story okay, I'm going to say that normal human beings push the trolley cart.

P.S. Please review. It's detrimental to the quality of this story that I know exactly what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong. And if you want this story to last a while, I'll need ideas for the plot.

* * *

Violet snuck out of her room later that night and headed downstairs to her mother's potion laboratory. She'd decided when she first got home to wait until after Christmas to attempt to steal a swig of Felix Felicis. She didn't want to jeopardize getting caught and ruining the holiday.

She opened the door and made her way to the portion of the wall where you could just make out a shimmering square. She waved her wand and the wood dissipated to reveal several small vials with golden liquid in them. There were also a couple other bottles filled with different colored liquids that Violet did not know the purpose of.

She carefully scanned the bottles of Felix Felicis and picked one that had already been partially drinken. Violet popped the cork and took a very small gulp she figured would give her an hour of luck.

Immediately she felt a warmth spread through her entire body and incredible knowledge fill her head that she knew was not hers, but Felix Felicis's. She knew exactly what she'd have to do to get the journal.

She placed the cork back in the bottle and the bottle back in the hole in the wall and waved her wand to reactivate the Teryhul Charm. She then proceeded upstairs to her parents' bedroom.

Both her parents were lying on the bed in deep sleep. Her mother was on the side of the bed facing away from the door on her side.

Violet made her way over to her and sat there waiting for several minutes before Felix Felicis told her what to do next.

"Mum," she whispered. Her mother stirred slightly. "Where's the journal?" Violet asked quietly.

"Middle—" she muttered, clearly not conscious of what she was saying. After a couple of moments she muttered, "— drawer."

Violet scanned the room and saw a dresser with two drawers. She looked a little more closely and a third one appeared in between the other two. Violet made her way to the dresser and opened the middle drawer. Inside was a very beaten up leather bound book.

She opened it and randomly flicked through the pages until she stopped on the ones that had what she was looking for. Violet pulled out a piece of parchment, ink, and quill and scribbled down all the details relating to the animagus transformation.

After she'd pocketed the parchment and writing tools, she closed the notebook and was careful to put it back exactly where it'd been before and closed the drawer. Violet retreated to the hallway and closed the door quietly and made her way back to her room.

She changed into her night clothes and fell asleep.

* * *

Harry was running after the great black dog who was dragging Ron by the foot. Crookshanks dodged the Whomping Willow's branches and placed his paws on a knot in the tree. The tree instantly froze and the dog dragged ron into a tunnel at its base.

Harry and Hermione chased after them. When they finally reached the end of the tunnel, they emerged in a very beaten down house and saw Ron lying on a bed.

"It's a trap!" he said. "He's the dog."

"Who's the dog?" said Hermione who rushed to Ron's side.

"Sirius Black! He's an animagus."

* * *

Harry woke up and was about to make his way to wake up Violet when her door opened and found himself being shoved back into his own room.

"What's up, Vi?" Harry asked while his sister closed his bedroom door behind her.

"I've done it!" she said excitedly.

"Done what?"

"Here! Read this!" she thrust a small length of parchment into his hands. Harry's eyes darted across the parchment.

"Violet, where did you get this?" he asked tentatively.

"A few months back, Mum and Dad were arguing outside my door about a journal. She wanted him to destroy it but he wasn't going to. She said it contained detailed instructions on how to become animagi. I've only just managed to get at the journal and copy down the instructions last night."

"This is really complex," said Harry.

"Nothing we can't handle," said Violet.

"Are you sure you want to become an animagus?" Harry asked.

"Well why not? It could be really useful."

"But what's the point? We don't have a real need for it, like Dad and Padfoot did. Yes, it would be cool, but is it really worth it?"

"I— I thought you'd be more enthused."

"It's great that you managed to get this and all, but I don't think I want to become an animagus this badly."

"I guess I never thought about it like that," said Violet.

"From the sounds of it, the process is going to be a real hindrance on our lives. I mean, if all there was to it was just saying a small incantation and suddenly you're an animagus then I'd be all for it. But _this. . ._ "

"Yeah. I really didn't give it much thought."

"So what did you have to do to get the journal?" She told him.

"How come you never came to me? I've read about the Teryhul charm _and_ the Fidelius Charm. We could have read that journal before we even left for Hogwarts."

"I wanted to prove I could do things on my own," said Violet.

"Why do you think you needed to prove that?"

"You've always outshone me in everything. I wanted the chance to prove that _I_ could figure out how to get past Mum and Dad's enchantments too. I wanted to—" she was interrupted by a hug from her brother.

"You are so stupid, you know that Vi?"

"What?"

"You have nothing to prove. You're Violet fucking Potter. You're smart, clever, cunning. You can do plenty that I can't. There are things that I couldn't do without you. So don't be afraid to admit there are things you need me for."

"I'm sorry, Harry."

"Don't be."

* * *

Harry and Violet said their goodbyes to their parents before boarding the Hogwarts Express. After searching for a little while, they found a compartment with Neville, Ron, and Nick.

"Hey," said the twins in unison.

"Hi. Have a good break?" asked Neville.

"Yep," said Violet. "You?"

"Mine was great. I don't get to see my Gran a lot, so it's always something to look forward to."

"I had a great time. Thanks for the Chudley Cannons hat, by the way," said Ron.

"No problem," said Harry.

"Oh yeah, that Herbology book you got me. It's very interesting," said Neville.

"Nick, did you enjoy the muggle sweets?" asked Violet.

"Huh— oh, yeah. They were okay. Wizards do it better. Look, sorry I didn—" said Nick.

"Don't apologize. We never expected you to get us anything. We just sent you the sweets because we thought you'd get a good laugh at them," said Violet.

"Oh. Well, thanks."

"Anyways, didn't know you three knew each other," said Ron while pointing at Nick, Violet, and Harry.

"We're all Slytherins and first years. And Nick's a pretty cool guy. Kind of hard to not know each other," said Harry. "You three know each other?" Harry gestured at Nick, Ron, and Neville.

"No. They couldn't find an empty compartment so I told them they can sit here," said Nick.

"Well it's a long ride to Hogwarts," said Harry.

The five of them began talking to each other, for the rest of the ride. Turned out, the ride wasn't long enough because they were surprised to see Hogwarts off in the distance when looking out of the window.

"Well we better get into our school robes," said Neville.

* * *

"Down!" said Young.

"Sixteen!" said the Slytherin Quidditch team in unison, as they all did a pushup at the same time.

"Down!"

"Seventeen!"

"Down!"

"Eighteen!"

"Down!"

"Nineteen!"

"Down!"

"Twenty!"

"Up!" The team stood up. "Line up! Front to back." The team obeyed. "When I say go, the first person at the line while run a lap around the pitch and line up at the back of the line."

"This is so stupid," Violet whispered.

"Potter! You just earned us an extra ten laps."

"Go!" Nick's older brother, John, took off.

After several seconds, "Go!" Pucey took off.

"Go!" Violet took off.

"Go!" Anderks took off.

"Go!" Harry took off.

"Go!" Derrick took off, and then Young followed shortly after.

This cycle went through several more times before Young had them on the ground again.

"When I say 'up' you give me a situp. Up!"

"One!"

By the time Young finally released them, the entire team was aching.

"Why do we have to do this?" Violet asked Young.

"If we want to claim that cup, we need to be fit. We need endurance. We need both physical and mental strength. Physical strength builds mental strength. We need to have the willpower to comprehend and understand what the other team is doing while they're doing it and act on impulse.

"And how do you expect to pull off our complicated maneuvers if you start building up a large stomach? How do you expect to catch and throw the quaffle long distances with arm flab?"

"Well before I joined this team I got plenty of exercise on my on my own, I'll have you know," said Violet.

"As captain of this team, it's my right to decide what build my team members need to have and how to make sure they maintain it," said Young.

"Oh, is it now? And tell me, how is spending more time on the ground going to help us become better at Quidditch. You know, that one game where we're up on brooms in the air? Because we haven't been on our brooms at all since before we left for break."

"Our match against Ravenclaw isn't until the end of February! We have got plenty of time for both practice and fitness."

"Oh and when will the practice part be? The day before the match?"

"I'll have to remind you that I set up these practices on a schedule. Two practices a week. Fitness one day, practice the other."

"So why are the fitness ones longer than the practice?"

"Look, do you want off this team?"

"No!"

"Then you're going to come to every practice, stay until the end, and follow every order I give you. Why are you being so upset about this, anyways? You don't hear anyone else complaining."

"Oh they're complaining. I'm just the only one with the balls to say something about it."

"Fine! Two practices a week, half of one will be fitness. Happy?"

"It's a start," said Violet. She walked into the girls' locker room and headed to her locker. She pulled off her quidditch robes and looked over in the mirror at herself. _I guess there are_ some _benefits to this_ , she thought.

* * *

"Miss Potter could you please demonstrate to the class the proper wand movement for the levitation charm?" asked Professor Flitwick.

"Oh, sure Professor." she waved her wand in a specific manner.

"Yes, that's pretty good. But you'll want to give that final aim at the object you wish to levitate a little flick of your wrist. Care to try again?" Violet did as he asked.

"Yes, yes. Very good. Five points to Slytherin. And, Mister Boot would you care to give us the proper pronunciation of the incantation?"

"Yes, Professor. It's _Wingardium Leviosa_ ," said Terry Boot.

"Very good! Five points to Ravenclaw. Now everyone come collect a feather and try to levitate it."

Even though most people got both the wand movements and pronunciation correct, no one managed to levitate their father as the charm proved to be really difficult.

"Alright, for your homework I want you to practice. I want you all to have managed to levitate your feather by Wednesday so we can move on to levitating heavier objects."

"Have you even tried doing verbal magic, to see if it's easier?" Harry asked Violet while they left class for lunch.

"No. I don't see any reason to, either. Even if it is easier, they're eventually going to expect everyone to do nonverbal magic, so why not start now? I still master the spells as quickly as everyone else."

When Harry and Violet sat down at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, Violet noticed a pretty, bushy-haired girl glance over briefly and her brother messy up his hair.

"Oh will you just ask her out, already?" Violet shot at her twin.

"What?" Harry said.

"Granger," Violet said impatiently.

"I'm not interested," Harry said while looking down at his food.

"Harry Potter, you are by far the worst liar I've ever met."

"Violet Potter, you are by far the nosiest person I've ever met," Harry retorted.

* * *

"Down!"

"Nineteen!"

"Down!"

"Twenty!"

"Up! Get on your brooms, up in the air. Potter, balls, bats." Violet obeyed happily.

After about two hours of practicing, Young had the team do fifty situps and then he let them go.

"Noticed how there aren't as many people up there." Harry pointed to the stands.

"Hmm. Why is that?"

"Maybe they got lives."

* * *

"Potter! Why aren't you taking notes?" McGonagall scolded.

"I don't need to," said Harry.

"What do you mean you don't need to? Do you want to pass this class?"

"Quiz me."

"What?" McGonagall failed to hide her surprise.

"Ask me a question about anything we learned this year, Professor."

"What are the five variables involved in the transformation formula?"

"Well, Professor. There's 'a' which means body weight. There's 'v' which means viciousness. There's 'w' which means wand power. Finally there's 'z' which is open to interpretation."

"Hmm. Very well, then."

"You should have gotten some points for that," Nick whispered. Harry just shrugged.

* * *

"Oi! When are we collaborating again?" The Weasley twins walked toward the twins in the Entrance Hall.

"Not sure. I've had a talk with my little sister—" said Harry.

" _Thirty minutes!_ " hissed Violet.

"—and we're not so sure you two quite meet our standards," Harry finished as if there had been no interruption.

"Oh is that so?" said George.

"Our last prank was pretty tame. You see, wasn't it Harry who completely and utterly ruined the prank by forgetting the dungbombs? Oh wait, no. That was you," said Violet.

"Oh is that how it is? We make one little mist—" said Fred.

"And wasn't it Violet who cast the jinx on a door people hardly ever use instead of on Filch's door? Oh wait, no. That was you," said Harry.

"Alright! We get your point," said Fred.

"We'll give you one more chance, but if you mess this one up, you're no longer going to have the pleasure of hanging with the cool kids," said Harry.

"Alright. So what's the plan?"

* * *

Neville and Ron crawled through the Gryffindor portrait hole to head down for lunch. They ran into Violet and Harry on the way.

"Oh, hey guys," said Neville.

"Oh. Sorry, we've not got time to chat," said Violet. "Be close to the Entrance Hall in twenty minutes, okay?"

"Why?" asked Ron.

"You'll see," said Harry with a grin.

With that, the twins walked off in the other direction and Neville and Ron continued to the Great Hall.

Twenty minutes later, Ron and Neville found themselves in a crowd that were surrounding Fred and George.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" said George. "My brother Fred and I are here to amaze you! What have you got in the bag, Fred?"

"I'm glad you asked, George," said Fred. "In here I have several strips of parchment that each have a number on them. And one lucky volunteer gets to choose one of the numbers to receive a surprise. Any volunteers?" No one raised their hand.

"Alright, I don't think they're convinced of the benefits," said George. "I have here a roll of parchment that assigns the number our volunteer chooses to a reward. I'm not going to tell you all of them, but I'm going to give you an idea of what you might get. Just three out of the many possibilities include: a chocolate frog, a dung bomb, or cauldron cake."

"So I ask again, any volunteers?" said Fred.

Someone raised their hand and stepped forward.

"Alright, we have a volunteer. Just stick your hand in the bag and draw a number and then show it to us and the crowd," said George. The student obeyed and showed the crowd an eight.

"Aha! Eight. Very lucky, you are. We've got for you an entire box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. Give him his reward, George," said Fred. He reached in his robe and drew out a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and handed it to the boy.

"Anyone else?"

"Aha!" More people seemed interested now. "How about you?" A girl stepped forward and showed the crowd a four.

"Ooh! Four. Let's see here, your reward is a single chocolate frog. George." George handed the girl the chocolate frog.

"One last volunteer, if you will," said George.

"I'd like to volunteer," said a female voice familiar to Neville and Ron.

"Alright, step forward," said Fred.

Violet emerged from the crowd and stepped in front of Fred and George, who looked surprised but tried to hide it.

"Draw a number," said George skeptically.

Violet reached her hand in the bag and pulled out a strip of parchment with the number thirteen on it.

"Uh, there's no thirteen on here," said George.

"Yes there is!" said Harry who just appeared behind the twins. He pointed his wand at the parchment. "It's right there, see?"

"Oh, right. I guess I didn't see it before, thank you. Yes, your reward is for 'Fred and George to become fairy princesses and—" the crowd started laughing.

"Well I did earn my reward, didn't I?" asked Violet innocently.

"What is this?" asked Fred.

"I think you're in the middle of fulfilling my dear sister's reward," said Harry. Just then, Violet waved her wand and both Fred and George were wearing pink tutus and fairy wings. The crowd started laughing even harder.

"I think fairies should fly, don't you?" Harry asked the crowd. The crowd agreed.

" _Wingardium Leviosa!_ " Harry pointed his wand at Fred who began to float in the air, Violet did the same to George. The crowd was now laughing even harder.

"Alright! You got us. Well played," said George.

"Yes, bravo. Could you let us down, now?" said Fred.

"Why don't you let yourself down? You are wizards, aren't you?" Harry asked.

The Weasley twins reached to their pockets for their wands but didn't draw any.

"Oh, are you looking for these?" Violet held up two wands.

"Okay. What do you want from us?" asked George.

"It's not so much as what we want from you," said Harry.

"We just want the entire school to know who the best pair of twins are," said Violet.

"But you two are in this school. We can't have the whole school know who the best twins are without you," said Harry.

"Alright, you two are the best. Let us down now," said George.

"Who is the best at what?" asked Violet.

"Harry and Violet are the best twins at Hogwarts," said Fred.

"Are you satisfied with that," Harry asked Violet.

"Hmm. It could use a little more genuinity, but I'll take it," said Violet. Violet threw both the Weasley twins' wands across the hall. Violet and Harry then flicked their wands and Fred and George dropped to the ground.

Harry and Violet rushed to the Slytherin common room before Fred and George could push through the crowd to retrieve their wands.

* * *

The next morning Harry and Violet found Ron and Neville in the Entrance Hall.

"Haven't seen Fred or George anywhere, have you?" Harry asked the two while looking around.

"Nope," said Neville.

"That was hilarious, what you did yesterday," said Ron.

"It really was," Neville added.

Harry and Violet simultaneously bowed.

"Can't have people going around thinking there's someone— two someones— better than us, can we?" Violet asked.

"Guess you can't," said Ron.

"Heads up," Harry whispered to Violet and pointed at Fred and George through the crowd. Violet snuck off in a circle.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Harry Potter," said George.

"It is? I hadn't noticed," said Harry.

"Where's Violet?" asked Fred.

"Probably stealing your wands," said Harry.

They both clapped their hands to their pockets and turned around. When they turned back around Violet was standing next to Harry.

"What were you looking at?" she asked innocently.

"You two really are something, you know that?" said George.

"We get that a lot," said Harry and Violet in unison.

"Well we must admit, you pulled one hell of a prank on us," said George.

"We know," said the Potters.

"There will be retaliation," said Fred.

"We know," said the Potters.

"You see," said Violet. "When you showed us that you were incapable of being equal to us, we decided to take you up on that first offer you made us."

"What offer?" said George.

"Wasn't the first thing they ever said to us, 'if it isn't the competition?'" Harry directed at his sister.

"Something of the sort," said Violet.

"Oh so it's a war you're after," said Fred.

"Would you call a battle between an unarmed person and an armed person a war?" asked Harry.

"That's cute. The little first years think they can beat us," said Fred.

"Wait, where're your wands?" asked Violet.

"Oh, just you wait," said George.

"How long? You've only got four and a half years left to top us. Going to need at least six to develop something capable of doing that with your brains," said Violet.

"We'll just see," said Fred. Violet handed the two back their wands and they marched inside the Great Hall to the Gryffindor table.

"Do you think that was a good idea?" Ron asked the Potters.

"More than," said Harry.

* * *

The next day Harry and Violet made their way to the school library and started searching the aisles on advanced magic. They couldn't find anything particularly useful even though they searched for somewhere near an hour.

"You don't think they'd be in the restricted section, do you?" Harry asked Violet.

"Could be, but why would the other one be restricted?" Violet said.

"Do you think Madam Pince would tell anyone if we asked her where they are?"

"She might. But what does she care? As long as we're not harming her precious books, she should be happy, right?"

"Yes, good point. It's worth a shot."

"Only ask her about the second one for now," said Violet while her brother walked toward the end of the aisle.

"Er— Madam Pince?" Harry said.

"Yes? What do you need, boy?" said Madam Pince.

"I was wondering where the books on Occlumency are."

"What? Why?"

"It's a useful skill to have, thought it'd be worth a try," Harry lied lamely.

She eyed him suspiciously and then said, "Aisle four, section J, top shelf."

With that Harry walked back to his sister and led her to the location Madam Pince had given him. They looked for about a minute before Violet said, "Here it is. _Shielding the Mind_. Not a very creative name, is it?" She pulled it off the shelf and inspected it.

"Cool. Now we just need to find the other one. It'd be near here, wouldn't it?"

"It should." They kept looking but didn't turn up anything.

"You sure they wouldn't put it in the restricted section?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. It's not exactly encouraged amongst students, is it? But the restricted section is meant for dark magic and it's not really dark magic."

"Well we'll just have to keep looking. We can't ask Madam Pince. She was suspicious when I asked her about Occlumency, imagine how suspicious she'd be if I wanted a book on how to do Legilimency."


	8. End of First Year

A/N: I cannot stress enough how important it is that you review. I'm not trying to beg for attention. I'm merely asking for anyone who enjoys the story to give me solid criticisms that can allow me to improve the quality of the story. I also need ideas. This chapter was really difficult to write as I was hit with a case of writer's block. :/ I have many plans for this story, just not a lot of ideas to fill the gaps between now and those plans.

Thanks to WandWrk, AlphaBravo123, and Zedd00 for reviewing. :)

Also, I'm going on vacation for about a week. Not sure how much time I'll get to write while I'm over there so expect a brief hiatus.

* * *

For the next several weeks, Violet and Harry spent most of their free time in the library looking for books on Legilimency to no avail. Violet and Harry had both read through the entire book on Occlumency and were practicing the techniques the book gave them, but they had no real way of testing their abilities without someone who actually knew Legilimency.

"Why are we even trying to master Occlumency?" Harry asked Violet.

"Like you said, it's not a bad skill to have," said Violet.

"But why are we wasting our time trying to understand this stupid book when we could be looking for the book on Legilimency. You know, the thing we actually need to master?"

"You never know who knows Legilimency. The teachers could know and easily give us detentions for all of the things they don't know we did," said Violet.

"Yes, I suppose that's true."

"And what do you mean 'need to master'?" Violet added.

"If we don't need to master it, why are we looking for these books?"

"No, I mean why do we 'need' to master it? It's not like the first person who's mind we read is going to have a plot to kill us."

"But Fred and George have a plot to do something to us," said Harry.

"Yes, that was the whole point of learning Legilimency."

"Now we're just repeating ourselves."

"Are we?"

"Are we?"

"We are!"

"I know we are."

"This is actually kind of annoying."

"Yes, it is. Wait, what just happened?"

"We were arguing about something. . ."

"Were we?"

"I think we were. I am so confused."

"This is so stupid."

"Yes, it is."

"We're doing it again!"

"Doing what?"

"I have no idea, but it's completely pointless."

"Are we in a loop? How do we get out?"

"Just stop talking."

"That could work. But what do we do when we stop talking?"

"Er— nothing?"

"But doing nothing is even more pointless than this."

"Then we do our homework."

"We finished all of our homework."

"Then we go to the library and look for the Legilimency book."

"But it's after curfew."

"Then we go to bed."

"But I'm not tired."

"Neither am I."

"Then why did you suggest it?"

"I was just trying to find a solution to this endless conversation about nothing."

"We can get out of this conversation if we talk about something else."

"What else is there to talk about?"

"How about you and Granger?"

"I told you, I'm not interested in Hermione!"

"And I told you you're a horrible liar."

"Fine, I think she's pretty. Happy?"

"Nope."

"Why?"

"Because you like her more than her appearance."

"Prove it."

"I can't without Legilimency, but you don't have to read minds to read the expression on your face when you look at her."

Harry just glared at his sister.

"Why won't you just ask her out?" asked Violet.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because she hates me."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Have you not seen the way she glares at me all the time?"

"She glares at you when you answer a question before she does. It's a friendly, rather silly, competition."

"But you don't see the way she glares at me. I can see dislike in her eyes."

"I think you're just trying to see things that aren't there."

"Why would I Hermione to hate me?"

"Because you're nervous about what she'd say if you asked her out, so you're trying to convince yourself that she'll say 'no' so you don't have to ask her out."

"When the hell did you get to be so wise?"

"Is that you admitting that I'm right?"

Harry hesitated. Then he looked down and mumbled something inaudible.

"I'm sorry?" said Violet.

"Yes," said Harry.

"Ooh! This is what it feels like to be right. It's not as satisfying as I thought it'd be."

"Don't get used to it."

"So are you going to ask her out?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm still scared she'll say no."

"Aww. Harry 'Girl Hopping' Potter has feelings."

"Shut it."

* * *

Violet and Harry were leaving Potions on Wednesday when Violet nudged Harry and pointed to a pretty, bushy-haired girl up ahead in the hall.

"Do it!" Violet said.

"No," said Harry.

"You are—"

". . .really tired of my sister getting involved in my personal affairs," Harry snapped.

Violet surrendered and allowed the two of them to walk to lunch in silence.

* * *

As the match against Ravenclaw drew ever nearer, the intensity of the Slytherin team practices drastically increased. Despite Young's promise to Violet to make only half of one practice a week be devoted to fitness, they were now doing practices four times a week with a day and a half devoted to fitness.

"Down!"

"Ninety-eight!"

"Down!"

"Ninety-nine!"

"Down!"

"One hundred!"

"Get up. Take a two minute break then line up front to back."

"We're not doing fitness tomorrow," Violet said to Young.

"Says who?" Young retorted.

"Says me. With unanimous agreement from the team, right?" The other team members nodded, a couple halfheartedly cheered.

"Well in case any of you have forgotten, I'm the captain."

"In case you have forgotten, Young, we're practicing for Quidditch. And the match is in two days. We need to be on our brooms as much as possible." There was more agreement to this.

"Fine. Tomorrow practice starts at eight. As soon as everyone's here, we're on our brooms in the air. Practice will end sometime around four. Happy?"

"Yes," the team said in unison.

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the fourth Quidditch match of the year. Today we'll be seeing Slytherin versus Ravenclaw. And here come our teams now," said Lee Jordan, the commentator.

"Playing as beater for Slytherin we have Henry Young who is also team captain. His other beater is Peregrine Derrick. Following the beaters we've got the chasers: John Jakobsynn, Adrian Pucey, and Violet Potter!" The applause grew louder at the last name.

"Following the chasers we've got the keeper, Julia Anderks, and the Seeker, Harry Potter!" The applause grew louder again at the last name.

"And on the Ravenclaw team we've got keeper and captain, Jeremy Bright. Following him are his two beaters, Calvin Strider and Galen Anvil. Their chasers are Roger Davies, Alexandra Dawn, and Diana Catcher. And for their seeker, Taylor Mythshard."

"Captains, shake hands," said Madam Hooch. Young and Bright did as they were told, both traditionally trying to break each other's hands. The whistle blew and all fourteen players shot into the air.

"And the quaffle is immediately taken by Violet Potter, who weaves in and out of the other players, dodges a bludger sent by Galen Anvil, swerves back and performs a very complicated looking maneuver before passing it to Adrian Pucey who immediately scores a goal. Ten-zero to Slytherin!

"And the quaffle is now taken by Alexandra Dawn who passes it to Diana Catcher, To Roger Davies, back to Dawn, Davies, Dawn, Catcher, Dawn now has possession of the quaffle. And she shoots and it's blocked by Julia Anderks.

"Potter takes the quaffle, passes to Pucey, passes to John Jakobsynn, passes back to Pucey. He ducks, feints a shot and passes to Potter who also feints a shot and passes to Pucey who dodges Calvin Strider's bludger and scores! Twenty-zero to Slytherin."

The score was fifty-twenty when, "Oh it looks like Potter has spotted the snitch." Harry was zooming toward the ground at high speed, Taylor Mythshard hot on his tail. "And he pulls up in the last possible second with nothing in his hand. Looks as if he was pulling his Wronski Feint, but Taylor Mythshard wasn't falling for it. Better luck next time.

"The quaffle goes to Pucey, Jakobsynn, Pucey, Potter, Jakobsynn— ooh! That's gotta hurt.

"The quaffle is taken by Davies, Dawn, Catcher, Dawn, Davies, Catcher, Davies, Catcher, Davies, Catcher, Dawn who shoots and scores! Thirty-Ninety to Ravenclaw."

"Oh it looks as if Mythshard has seen the snitch. Potter is following close by. Potter's gaining. Potter's ahead. Mythshard is trying hard to catch back up but is no match for Potter's Nimbus. And Potter has pulled up with the snitch in his hand! Slytherin wins! Two seventy to ninety!"

The team soared down to the ground and congratulated each other before heading back to the locker rooms to change.

"So we're in first place," Young told his teammates as they were walking across the pitch. "We're ninety points above Ravenclaw. Our chances of taking home the cup are really high."

"I am not excited to see how hard Young works us before the Gryffindor match," Violet said so that Young couldn't hear.

* * *

"You two should be worried," Ron said to Harry and Violet. It was Wednesday and they were in Defense Against the Dark Arts. "Fred and George are plotting something."

"Yeah? Tell me. Is the sky blue?" Harry said.

"And are we in Hogwarts?" Violet added.

"Ha, ha," Ron retorted. "Seriously, though. They've gone all quiet and isolated themselves from everyone else. They're normally eager to be the center of attention. Something big is coming."

"Sister, dear. Can you tell me whether or not humans need to breathe?" Harry said to Violet.

"No, brother, I can't. How about you, Ron? You're the expert," said Violet.

"Neville, tell me, are those two assholes?" Ron directed at Neville.

"Oh— uh , no. I think they're alright," said Neville. Ron glared at him and the Potters laughed.

"And how comes the reading up on doxies?" Professor Dawlish asked the group.

"Oh— it's alright," said Neville.

"Can any one of you tell me the best spell to use to repel doxies?"

"The Knockback Jinx is most effective, sir. But Doxycide would be most preferable at dealing with them," said Harry.

"I see," said Professor Dawlish and walked away.

"Has he ever given anyone points?" asked Ron.

"Most likely not. He didn't bat an eye when Vi did nonverbal magic," said Harry. "He'd probably only give one point if one of us slayed a Chimaera that was attacking the classroom."

"Makes you wonder if he even knows there's a point system," said Ron.

"He definitely knows there's a point system," said Neville. "He's taken plenty away before."

"Has he?" said Violet.

"Yeah. All the time," said Ron.

"I don't remember that," said Harry.

"Yes, he has. Watch," said Ron. "Hey! Professor Dawlish!"

"Yes, Mr. Weasley?" said Professor Dawlish.

"This chapter is dumb. I don't see why we have to read it."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. I don't get why we need to read an entire chapter to know how to either spray it with stuff or hit it with a knockback curse."

"Hmm. Can you tell me the effects doxy venom has on you?"

"No."

"Can you tell me where you're most likely to find doxies?"

"No."

"Can you tell me the best way to prevent doxies from taking residence in your home so you don't even need doxycide?"

"No."

"Read the chapter, Mr. Weasley. Five points from Gryffindor. Your essay for today will be three inches longer than everybody else's," Professor Dawlish said and walked off.

"See?" Ron said, clearly disappointed. Evidently he'd only been expecting points deducted, not extra homework.

* * *

"Open your books to page a hundred and three," said Professor Slughorn. "Today you'll be producing a rather tricky, but still doable at your level, potion. This potion is known as the Vile Aether. It is nothing you'll want to ingest yourself. The effects are relatively harmless, but unfathomably uncomfortable. There will be some ingredients required that you won't have. You can find these in the store cupboard over there." He pointed to a door a couple feet to the right of his desk.

Violet flipped through her book and landed on a clean page. She'd written on every page she'd read so far. She read the first paragraph on the page.

The Vile Aether is a poison that does not cause injury or death. It is used a form of torture that does not cause physical pain, as does the Cruciatus Curse. Instead it'll cause immense discomfort to the drinker. The antidote is simply a bit of chocolate that has been melted and rehardened three times.

Violet began reading through the potions instructions and set to work. Occasionally she'd happen across an instruction she didn't like and rewrite her own in its place.

"You're Madam Pince's worst nightmare, you know that?" Harry said to her.

Violet just smirked and continued.

"Why do you write so small? It's almost impossible to read," Harry said while looking over at his sister's book.

"Not my problem. I can read it just fine," said Violet.

Harry was forced to attempt to copy what she did instead of trying to decipher her cramped handwriting.

At the end of class, Violet put her name on a vial containing a mist-like, pink fluid that perfectly matched the description in the book, and gave it to Professor Slughorn. Harry's potion wasn't as deep a pink as it should be, and it didn't look mist-like at all. Violet worked pretty fast and wasn't attempting to allow Harry to copy her, so he had a hard time doing so.

"How the hell are you so good at Potions?" Harry asked Violet while they walked toward lunch.

"I don't know. I just see instructions that don't seem right and I change them," she said and shrugged.

"But how? How can you just simply know better than the author?"

"Drop it, will you? I just do as I think is right. I didn't learn it from anywhere. I honestly can't tell you any more than that."

* * *

"Well look who it is!" said Fred.

"What? Where? I don't see anyone," said George.

"They're right there. If you look closely enough, you can see them."

"Ah, yes! The little first years that think they can be us! I didn't notice them, because they're so small."

"Clever," said Violet. "Tell us, how does it feel to be on the worst Quidditch team the school's ever had?"

"Oh so you're still thinking you can beat us?" Fred said.

"Well let's see," said Harry. "Slytherin is in first place, Ravenclaw in second, Hufflepuff in third, and far down at the bottom of the charts is Gryffindor with a score smaller than both your brains combined."

"We've been saving the real tactics for the final match," said George.

"Mhm. And how big of an increase in skill will it be from your previous matches to our upcoming one?" Harry asked.

"Why?" said Fred.

"We need to know what we're dealing with," said Violet.

"Well, expect at least a five hundred percent increase in skill," said George.

"Oh, we're good, then," said Harry. "We'll absolutely stomp them."

"Oh just you wait," said George.

* * *

"UP!" said Young.

"One forty-four!" said the team in unison as they all did a simultaneous sit-up.

"UP!"

"One forty-five!"

"UP!"

"One forty-six!"

"UP!"

"One forty-seven!"

"UP!"

"One forty-eight!"

"UP!"

"One forty-nine!"

"UP!"

"One fifty!"

"Get up. Take a break. We'll be up in the air in ten minutes."

"I can't believe we're already a week away from the final match," said Violet.

"Tell me about it. Feels like Ravenclaw was obliterating Hufflepuff just the other day," said Julia Anderks.

"If only Hufflepuff were better," said Peregrine Derrick.

"Yeah. Can't believe they got four hundred and thirty points before the snitch was caught," said John Jakobsynn.

"You're going to have a hell of a time holding that McSkew guy off of the snitch until we're two hundred up, Harry," said Adrian Pucey.

"As long as Gryffindor keeps performing as poorly as they have been, we'll get the points we need to take the cup home," said Harry.

"Remember, Potter," said Young. "If it takes a foul to keep him from getting the snitch, do it. Anderks is more than capable to block a penalty."

"I know, Young."

"I'm putting five galleons on Young kissing Harry when he wins us the cup," Violet muttered to the team so Young couldn't hear.

"Ten galleons on third base," Adrian said.

* * *

"Students of Hogwarts I am pleased to announce the sixth and final match of the year!" said Lee Jordan from the commentator's booth. The crowd cheered.

"On Gryffindor's side we've got captain and seeker Oliver Wood. Their beaters are Fred and George Weasley, chasers are Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, and Angelina Johnson who is looking rather fine today—"

"JORDAN!" scolded Professor McGonagall who was also in the commentator's booth.

"Sorry, Professor. Anyway, we've got the Gryffindor seeker, Kenneth McSkew.

"And on the Slytherin side we have Captain and Beater Henry Young. His other beater is Peregrine Derrick, their keeper is Julia Anderks, their chasers are Adrian Pucey, John Jakobsynn, and Violet Potter!" The applause loudened at the last name. "As for their seeker, we have Harry Potter!"

"Young, Wood, shake hands," said Madam Hooch. They did so and attempted to break each other's hands as was the tradition. Madam Hooch blew her whistle and the fourteen players rose into the air.

"And the quaffle is taken by Bell who passes it to Johnson, who still won't go out with me, passes back to Bell, Spinnet, Johnson, Bell. She swerves through the air— ooh! She's hit by a bludger.

"The quaffle is taken by Potter who passes to Pucey, Jakobsynn, Potter, Pucey, Potter, Jakobsynn. He performs a sloth grip roll to avoid a bludger and tosses the quaffle over his shoulder to Potter who shoots the quaffle and it's blocked by Wood.

"Wood throws the quaffle back into play and it's taken by Johnson, Spinnet, Bell, Johnson. She loops through the air and shoots the quaffle into the middle goal. Ten-zero to Gryffindor!

"The quaffle is back in play being held by Potter who holds onto it. The other chasers are closing in on her. She expertly performs and Porskoff Ploy and Pucey now has the quaffle. He feints shooting and passes it to Jakobsynn who feints shooting and passes to Potter, who also feints shooting and passes it to Pucey who curves the ball around Wood into the goal. Ten-ten Slytherin.

"Jakobsynn takes the quaffle and immediately does a Finbourgh Flick to score another ten points. Twenty-ten Slytherin.

"Quaffle taken by Spinnet who attempts to pass but is intercepted by Jakobsynn who passes to Potter, Pucey, Potter, Jakobsynn. He confuses Wood and scores another goal. Thirty-ten Slytherin.

"Bell has the quaffle, passes to Johnson, Spinnet, Johnson, Bell. She shoots and the quaffle is knocked away by Anderks. Potter catches it and immediately scores again. Forty-ten Slytherin.

"Jakobsynn takes the quaffle, passes it to Pucey, Potter, Jakobsynn. Jakobsynn shoots and scores. Fifty-ten Slytherin.

"Oh it looks as if McSkew has seen the snitch. Potter is hot on his tail. Potter has pulled ahead and purposefully collides with him." There was a blast from Madam Hooch's whistle while boos erupted from the crowd. "Johnson takes the penalty and it's blocked by Anderks.

"Pucey takes the quaffle, passes it to Jakobsynn, Pucey, Jakobsynn, Pucey, Jakobsynn, Pucey. He shoots it and it's blocked by Wood.

"Johnson takes the quaffle, passes it to Spinnet, Bell, Johnson, Bell. Bell shoots and scores. Fifty-twenty Slytherin.

"Pucey takes hold of the quaffle, swerves through his opposing chasers, passes to Potter who shoots. It's blocked by Wood but Jakobsynn immediately catches and shoots the quaffle again. He scores. Sixty-twenty Slytherin.

"Bell takes the quaffle and is hit by a bludger. Johnson catches the quaffle, passes to Spinnet, Johnson, Spinnet. Spinnet shoots and is blocked by Anderks.

"Potter now in possession, passes to Pucey, Jakobsynn, Pucey. He shoots and scores. Seventy-twenty Slytherin.

"Johnson takes the quaffle and the three Gryffindor chasers move in a hawk formation. Johnson shoots and completely misses.

"Jakobsynn in possession, passes to Potter, Jakobsynn, Potter, Jakobsynn, Pucey. He shoots and scores. Eighty-twenty Slytherin."

The game went on for a couple of hours. Harry had to purposefully foul multiple times to keep McSkew off of the snitch.

"And Pucey zigzags through the air, successfully confusing his opposing chasers. He passes to Potter who scores. Two fifty to forty. If Potter gets the snitch now then Slytherin has won the cup."

Harry heard this and began looking for the snitch with extra effort, all the while keeping an eye on McSkew. It wasn't until after Slytherin had scored three more goals that Harry saw a glint of gold close to the ground.

"And Potter is zooming straight down at high speed. McSkew is not chasing after him. He likely thinks Potter is feinting. This is a huge mistake on McSkew's part as Potter has pulled up with the snitch in his hand. Slytherin wins the game and the cup!"

The teams flew to the ground and the Slytherins began to pile from the stands onto the pitch, cheering all the while.

* * *

Before making their way back to the common room, Harry and Violet took care to find Fred and George and rub the victory in their faces.

"Oh, hello Vi. Pleasure seeing you here," said Harry.

"You too, Harry. Oh, look! It's Fred and George! How odd that we all bump into each other here?" said Violet.

"Do you hear something George?" said Fred.

"Yeah, I do. There's this tiny squeaking. Not sure where it's coming from," said George.

"OH! There's the source of the noise. The Potter twins," said Fred.

"Damn," said Violet. "The hurt from your asses is so strong that I can feel it."

"Didn't know things as small as you could have nerves," said George.

"Didn't know skulls as thick as yours had room for brains," said Harry.

"Fred?" said George.

"Nope," said Fred.

"Damn!"

"Aww. Weasley twins admitting defeat," said Violet.

"Sad. I just thought of six more insults they could have used on us," said Harry.

"Well enjoy the cup," said Fred.

"For the whole day you get to have it before Slughorn takes it," said George.

"A whole day that you'll never get to experience," said Violet.

"Where did you find McSkew anyway? Just plopped the first person willing to be on the team on a broom, regardless of their skill, I assume?" said Harry.

"He caught the snitch in our first game," said Fred.

"One out of three. Not very impressive," said Violet.

"Best there was," said George.

"No wonder you lost so badly, if that's the best you can do," said Harry.

"I'm assuming you regret not taking us up on our bet now?" said Fred.

Nope. I don't really need your pocket change, Harry thought to himself. He didn't say it aloud however. He knew from Ron that Weasley wealth is a sensitive subject.

"Sure," said Violet

The two Potters walked away. As they were about to round a corner, Harry heard a couple of wooden objects hit the ground and turned to see that the Weasley twins also noticed the sound and were walking toward them.

Violet and Harry walked through a hidden passage out of sight of the spot where Violet dropped the Weasley twins' wands.

* * *

Only the day after the final Quidditch match the teachers decided to start piling homework onto students in preparation for the end of year exams. They had so much to do that they hardly had any free time in the weeks leading up to the exams.

It was because of this that made the distance from the end of the year feel a lot longer than it actually is.

"You know, sometimes I think Slughorn favors us because you're a Potions genius and we're both Slytherins," said Harry. "But then he goes and gives us a two foot essay every class."

With the near twenty essays a week the students had to do, it was with great relief as well as anxiety that the exams arrived.

While Harry and Violet felt confident heading into exams, pretty much everyone else in their class felt extremely nervous. Even Hermione Granger felt nervous despite the fact that she knew every one of their course books by heart.

The Potter twins found Neville and Ron and proceeded outside to enjoy the nice weather, something they hadn't had the chance to do owing to their countless essays.

"It's so weird that the year is already over," said Neville.

"I know. I swear we only just learned that Vi could do nonverbal magic yesterday," said Harry.

"Except the last month and a half, this year really flew by," said Ron.

Everyone agreed.


	9. Leaf

A/N: I am surprised at how short this chapter turned out. I've been home from vacation for several days and worked on it pretty much the entire time. I got hit with writer's block pretty hard. This is why it's important that you give me ideas. I have many, many, things planned out in the future, but I haven't got too much of a clue as to what to write about until it gets to those parts. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter.

* * *

"We leave Hogwarts tomorrow," said Violet. "This will be your last chance to ask her out for two months."

"I'm not going to," said Harry.

"But—"

"Drop it!" Harry was clearly mad. Violet was not used to this.

"Violet stood there in silence for several seconds before saying, "I'm sorry," sincerely.

* * *

Harry and Violet got off the train and said their goodbyes to Neville and Ron before making their way toward their parents. They'd only just got a glimpse of them before their mother pulled them into a suffocating hug.

"Hi," said Harry and Violet in unison when their mother let them go.

"Have a good first year?" asked their father as they all walked toward the road.

"Yep. How are we getting home?" said Harry.

"Your mother decided it was high-time we bought a car," their father said and pointed to a car that was in rather good condition.

"I enchanted it a little," said their mother. "But we can't do too much to it as it's not necessarily legal."

Violet and Harry moved their things into the impossibly large trunk and got in the backseat of the car.

The twins were surprised when they'd only driven for a couple of minutes before appearing on a small stretch of asphalt in the Trinity.

"I said I added a few enchantments," said their mother. "Not simple."

"Wait," said Harry. "This car will just apparate us all home?"

"The instant we're out of view of all muggles," said their mother.

" _How?_ " said Violet.

"I invented a spell," she said.

"What?" said Harry and Violet together.

"But that's really complex," said Violet.

"You'd be paid a fortune for that," said Harry.

"Well as poor as we are," said their father sarcastically. "The spell is illegal. A car is a muggle artefact."

"But couldn't you repurpose it? Have it so other things transport you to certain locations?" asked Harry.

"That's called a portkey," said their mother.

"And that's essentially what she did to the car," said their father. "Just made it so that it's faster, less uncomfortable, reusable, and works on a car."

"And how do we get it out of the Trinity?" asked Violet.

"Same way we got it in," said their mother. "When we press the button it'll take us directly to the spot closest to King's Cross that isn't currently visible by any muggles."

"But how will you know how to get to King's Cross from some random location?" asked Harry.

"The muggles have this thing called a G-P-S. It tells you where to go."

"Oh," said Harry. "You know, I don't think we give the muggles enough credit."

* * *

Violet and Neville were about to leave the room when she looked back on the muggle boy. Violet couldn't leave the boy to suffer like this.

She pointed her wand at him and said, " _Avada Kedavra._ " There was a burst of green light and the boy feel limp. Neville looked at Violet with a mixture of horror, shock, and understanding on his face.

* * *

"Vi!" said a male voice.

Violet stirred and looked up at her twin, still thinking about the odd dream.

"Morning, Harry," she said.

"I made breakfast."

"What? _You_ made breakfast? Since when do you do that?"

"Mum and Dad are gone for the next two days, so I figured I'd step up and take responsibility. I have to, being the older brother and all."

"Thirty minutes," Violet mumbled halfheartedly.

"What's up?" Harry asked, concerned.

"Really odd dream. . ."

"I get those sometimes. Just the other night I dreamt of returning to King's Cross and heading to live with Aunt Petunia and her family."

"I don't know what to say to that," said Violet. In her opinion, his dream was odd, but nothing like the one she'd just had.

"Neither do I."

Violet managed to push the dream from her mind, having had to thoroughly convince herself that it wasn't real in the slightest, and headed down to the dining room with her twin.

"Holy shit," said Violet.

" _Watch your mouth, young lady!_ " Harry snapped.

"What?"

"I'm in charge. I have to be responsible."

Violet rolled her eyes. "Mum and Dad never put you in charge," she said while eying the meals her brother had set out for them.

"Whatever. Well considering Mum and Dad are gone for work, the Ministry would know it's not them doing magic when our traces go off," said Harry. "So I had to cook all of this by hand.

"I've shredded some potatoes into hashbrowns and covered it with cheese made from Nancy's milk. I also gave a pancake, waffle, and french toast to each of us. I've cooked several slices of bacon each, a couple of sausages. And lastly, I've made a little too much toast."

" _A little_?" Violet said incredulously. "There's like twenty slices there."

"Well if we store the toast in the cupboard that keeps food fresh, we'll have something to snack on all day."

"That's true." The twins sat down and began to eat.

"So, do you know what else was in that journal?" Harry asked before taking a bite of his pancake.

"Dad's journal? No. All I did was flip through and find the part about Animagi. Why?"

"Well if they were so concerned about us finding it and becoming Animagi, why wouldn't they just destroy it?"

"I don't know. That was what Mum and Dad were arguing about. He didn't want to destroy it but she did."

"What was in there that was so sentimental?"

"I don't know. He wouldn't even let Mum read it."

"Wait—" said Harry. "He didn't want Mum to read it?"

"Yeah."

"Then why did he make her his secret keeper?"

"What's that?"

"The Fidelius Charm. When you cast it, there's only one person that can tell you its location otherwise it's impossible to find."

"Oh. Yeah, why _did_ he make her his 'secret keeper?'"

"Who knows?"

"Maybe he just trusts her."

"That's dumb."

"What? Why?"

"You don't want someone to read something, so you tell them exactly where you hid it."

"Someone he's been with for a decade and a half."

"I still think it's dumb."

"Why? Maybe you just can't grasp the concept of two people who love each other enough to go to the ends of the Earth for."

"That's not what—"

"That's exactly what. We can continue this conversation when _you_ realize what a romantic relationship entails."

"And when did you become such an expert on romance?"

"I'm a female. It's our job to understand feelings and emotions because _men_ are too uncomfortable to do so."

Harry just glared at her and started on his hash browns.

"So why don't you just go and read the rest of the journal?" he asked her.

"Because Dad doesn't want us to read it. It's clearly personal to him."

"But aren't you curious?"

"More than you can imagine."

"So why don't you read it?"

"Because _I_ respect other people's feelings."

"If you respect other people's feelings so much, why did you read the journal in the first place?"

"All I did was copy down the instructions on how to become an Animagus. I didn't read anything personal."

"But—"

"Drop it. I'm not reading it."

Harry reluctantly accepted his sister's decision and changed the subject. "You know, we've still never tasted firewhiskey."

Violet was more than happy about the new topic. "That's very true," she said.

Harry got up and walked to the drawer containing silverware and retrieved a fork. He tossed it at the firewhiskey cabinet and it fell to the counter unharmed.

"I guess Mum and Dad changed the enchantments," Harry said.

"To what?"

"No clue. Do I risk it?"

"Go for it."

Harry reached out his hand and grabbed the cabinet handle and opened it. The cabinet was empty.

"Where's the firewhiskey?" Violet asked.

"Very good question."

Harry opened all the other cabinets and didn't find a single bottle of firewhiskey.

"Well that's disappointing," said Harry.

"Guess Mum and Dad decided to go completely sober over the school year."

Harry shrugged and returned to the table to start on some more toast.

* * *

"Harry!" said an excited, feminine voice.

"'Sup, Vi?" Harry said groggily.

"It's our birthday!"

"Oh, yeah!" Harry sat up and put on his glasses.

Harry's bedroom door opened and Sirius entered.

"Padfoot!" said the twins in unison.

"You two are growing up too quickly," said Sirius. "I swear, I was hearing your first words just yesterday."

"Snuffles," said Harry and Violet in unison with grins on their faces.

Sirius let out a bark like laugh. "At the same time, just like back then. It's still funny.

"Oh, yeah. Check this out," said Sirius while reaching in his shirt and pulled out a chain with alternating red and gold links with a locket at the end. He clicked it open and there was a photo of Sirius, Remus, James, Lily, Harry, and Violet standing together.

"Where'd you get that?" asked Harry.

"You gave it to me," said Sirius.

"He did?" said Violet.

"You both did. The collar from Christmas, remember? I enchanted it so that it changes when I'm human. Watch," he said before being replaced by a great black dog who was wearing a red and gold collar with a golden paw with 'Snuffles' engraved on it.

"You actually wear it?" Harry said.

"That's cool," said Violet.

With a blink of the eyes, Snuffles was gone and Sirius was back, grinning.

"Yeah. Figured I'd rather not have people mistaking me for the 'Grim' whenever I'm in Snuffles form," he said. "Now when they see me, I'll just be someone's scary ass pet."

The twins laughed and headed downstairs behind Sirius.

When they got into the living room, they saw it covered in birthday decorations that all revolved around the Slytherin colors.

Harry and Violet didn't understand why they'd gone through so much trouble to decorate a party so heavily just for six people.

"First birthday as Hogwarts students. Figured we'd go all out," said their mother as if she'd been anticipating their thoughts.

"This is great, Mum," said Harry and Violet.

"Well don't go giving her _all_ the credit," said Remus.

"Yeah," said their father. "We had a hand in it too."

"Finger, more like," said their mother with a smirk.

After several hours of talking, the twins opened their gifts from Sirius and James. When they'd thanked them, Sirius and James decided to take off and the four Potters decided it was time for bed.

When their mother had gone, James pulled the twins aside and talked to them in a whisper.

"Make sure your mother does not learn about this," he said as he pulled out a pair of hand mirrors. "These'll allow you to communicate to each other no matter where you are. Just say the other's name."

"I thought we didn't get birthday presents this year," said Violet, who was beaming at her father.

"Please. This is nothing compared to the dent your brooms gave us."

"Thanks, Dad," said Harry. He lifted his mirror and said Violet's name. Violet lifted her mirror to her face and Harry saw her in his mirror.

"Cool," said the twins in unison, yet four voices sounded.

"You'll hear each other through the mirror as well," said their father. "Now hide those things before your mother sees them." The twins did as he asked and headed upstairs for bed.

* * *

Although Violet had agreed with her brother's stance on becoming animagi, she still looked over the instructions whenever she was bored. She didn't want to go through all of the difficulty and risk that the process required, but there was still a faint hope that one day she'll actually be an animagus.

One night she couldn't sleep and took out the piece of parchment she'd copied the instructions from her dad's journal on and read through it. This was rather pointless as she'd already learned the sheet by heart.

"Mandrake leaf, potion, incantation, thunderstorm," she muttered to herself. She couldn't explain to herself the desire she had to become an animagus. She didn't have a real need for it as her father and godfather had, but it could be extremely useful to her.

The next day she woke up and went to wake up her brother after getting dressed. She hadn't needed to, however, as her brother was already putting on his glasses and making to stand up when she entered.

"Oh. Morning, Vi," he said.

"Harry," she said tentatively.

"Yeah?"

"Have you thought any more about this?" She handed him the instructions.

"No, and I don't care to. It's not something I'd like to spend my time and effort on."

"Thought as much. Just curious." She stepped out into the hall to let him get changed.

After doing their morning chores, they made their way to the dining room table for breakfast. Not long after eating had they heard a tapping noise on the kitchen window.

Violet beat Harry to the window and retrieved two envelopes, one of which she handed to her brother before tearing open her own.

"Just more of Mum and Dad's old books and some new potions ingredients," said Harry, slightly disappointed.

"Yeah. Shame we don't need anything else more interesting," said Violet.

Harry and Violet walked over to the bookcase and began pulling out the books they'd need for the coming year. "Oh, wait," he said. "There's only one copy of _Defensive Magical Theory, Grade 2_."

"I wonder what happened to it," said Violet. Suddenly her face lit up. "Oh!"

"What?"

"When we go into Flourish and Blotts to get that, we can look for a book on Legilimency."

"Mum and Dad'll never let us get it, or hear the end of it for wanting it."

"It's just one book. One of us can just ask to split off and pick it up real quick, as well as get one on Legilimency."

Harry pulled out a galleon as Violet called out "Tails!"

She groaned when Harry flipped it and it revealed a side with a head.

* * *

"We're missing a copy of _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2_ ," said Harry to his parents as they entered Diagon Alley. "I can go and get it real quick from Flourish and Blotts."

"Oh, okay," said their father and handed Harry a handful of galleons. "Give me the remainder and meet us at the apothecary. We'll grab parchment and those things for you."

Harry split off and entered Flourish and Blotts.

"Ahh, another Hogwarts student," said the shopkeeper. "Need the full set?"

"No. All I need is _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2._ I already have the rest," said Harry.

The shopkeeper disappeared behind a shelf and reemerged seconds later with a brand new book in his hand. He handed it to Harry and said, "So that's all?" He was clearly disappointed at only selling one book.

"Not quite. I was curious what you have on Legilimency."

"Legilimency?" The shopkeeper looked torn between scolding Harry and increasing the sale. Eventually he decided to do a little of both and merely inquired, "What for?" as if asking his opinion on a matter.

"I've been trying Occlumency and haven't had too much luck. I was hoping that learning more about what I'm shielding my mind against would get me further," Harry said confidently. He'd anticipated this question and prepared a lie beforehand.

Harry wasn't sure if the shopkeeper actually believed the lie or just accepted it in order to make a sale. Either way, Harry was happy when he was handed a thick, dark brown book that had very faint whispers coming from it.

Harry paid the man and left to meet up with his parents and sister.

* * *

When they got home, Harry and Violet wasted no time in flipping through the book titled, _Curiosity Sated: A Legilimency Enchiridion._

"Damn," said Violet. "Who knew someone could write so much information about _one_ spell?"

"Half of it isn't even about the spell," said Harry. "A lot of it is about clearing your mind and then telling you the benefits, history, and all that shit."

"Too bad we're going to have to read all of it though. For all we know, the author's scattered important information all throughout those bits."

After several days of scattered reading, they finally finished the last page and began to practice what the book said. Harry and Violet were working on clearing their minds.

" _Legilimens!_ " Harry said as he pointed his wand at his sister. Nothing happened.

"I thought _you_ were supposed to be the genius, yet here you are skipping past the most important instructions," said Violet.

"You never know. You can do nonverbal magic and I can speak to snakes. It was worth a shot."

"Not really."

It seemed that Harry and Violet had celebrated too soon, as Legilimency proved to be far more difficult than they'd anticipated. They'd keep trying regularly, but they knew it'd be a long time before they actually managed to delve into someone's mind even for a second, and a lot longer until they mastered the craft, if they do.

* * *

"Trunks," said their mother.

"Check," said the twins.

"Bags."

"Check."

"Parchment, quills, ink."

"Check, check, check."

"Books."

"Check."

"Robes, cauldrons, potions ingredients."

"Check, check, check."

"Personal belongings."

"Check."

"Pets, pet food/snacks."

"Check, check."

"Brooms."

"Check."

"Good. Well, let's go eat. Sadly, Padfoot and Moony won't be joining us this year," said their mother as they all sat down around the table.

"Why not?" asked Harry.

"You can't expect them to see us off every year, do you?" said Violet.

"Yeah, I guess second year isn't all that special. Still."

"It would have been nice," Violet agreed.

* * *

Harry and Violet entered the train after saying their goodbyes to their parents and headed down the corridor looking through every window for their friends in Gryffindor.

Harry felt his heart skip a beat when Hermione Granger walked passed them in the corridor. The feeling was so unusual to him that he forgot to ruffle his hair.

Violet noticed this and stared at her brother with an expression Harry couldn't identify, but she said nothing.

"Have a good holiday?" Neville asked when the twins entered the compartment and stuffed their things on the luggage rack.

"It was pretty nice," said Violet.

"Yours?" Harry said.

"Can't complain," said Ron.

The four wasted no time in starting a conversation. They were having such a good time that they were all utterly surprised when the train began to slow down. They hastened to don their school robes and left the train with the rest of the students.

The second years followed the older students down a path that lead to at least a hundred stagecoaches that appeared to be completely horseless. The group of four found themselves an empty one and filed in.

The students entered the Great Hall and sat down at their house tables and watched the sorting ceremony of the first years. After it was over, the headmaster stood up and silence engulfed the hall.

"There will be time for announcements, but that time is not now. Tuck in!" said Dumbledore. He sat down and food appeared on all of the plates. Everyone ate greedily.

When the deserts disappeared, the headmaster once again stood up and gave the usual announcements and then dismissed the students to bed.

* * *

Harry was leaving the Great Hall when he heard yelling down the corridor. He looked over and saw his two best friends arguing.

"Well you know what the solution is, don't you?" Hermione shot angrily.

"Oh yeah? What's that?" said Ron, also quite mad.

"Next time there's a dance, ask me out before anyone else does, not as a last resort!"

Ron stood there stunned and Hermione darted off up the stars, covering her face.

* * *

Harry woke and got changed and waited in the common room for his sister to wake. When she did, they headed down to the Great Hall together and began to eat breakfast.

"Aha!" said Professor Slughorn. "The two Potters. Here are your schedules. I'll be seeing you right after breakfast." He handed them their time tables and returned to the staff table.m

Like she'd done last year, Violet had begun to read off their course. "Monday: Potions with Gryffindor, Charms, Lunch, Defense, Transfiguration, Tuesday: Defense, History, Lunch, Double Transfiguration. Wednesday: Transfiguration, Herbology with Ravenclaw, Lunch, Double Potions with Gryffindor. Thursday: History, Herbology with Ravenclaw, Lunch, Double Charms, Astronomy at midnight. Friday: History, Herbology with Ravenclaw, Lunch, Transfiguration, Defense."

"Not too different from last year," said Harry. They left the Great Hall and went to their dormitories to retrieve their required books and made their way to the Potions classroom.

"Welcome to class," said Professor Slughorn. "This year, we'll be branching out into brewing more difficult and complex potions. But we won't get started today. There are some new theories you'll need to know in order to fully understand how these potions work and are brewed. Open your books to page one."

The entire class was just lecturing and reading. While Harry subconsciously soaked in all the information, Violet was completely interested in what was being taught and wrote down every single word Professor Slughorn uttered. Ron and Neville wrote down bits every now and again, but didn't seem to be paying too much attention.

Their next class was charms. This one, in Harry's opinion, was far more interesting as they were practicing the disarming charm. Professor Flitwick had set them in groups of two to practice disarming each other.

" _Expelliarmus!_ " a jet of scarlet light shot from Harry's wand and hit Violet in the chest. She staggered a couple steps as her wand flew into the air. Harry caught it and tossed it back to his sister.

She pointed her wand at Harry and the same scarlet light shot from her wand and hit Harry in the chest. He barely staggered at all as his wand soared through the air.

"Very good!" said Professor Flitwick who'd caught Harry's wand and handed it back to him. "Five points to Slytherin, each."

The twins left class and began walking toward the Great Hall.

"That's good," said Harry. "Now you won't have to steal Fred and George's wands every time we have a conversation."

"As long as we're faster," said Violet. "I'll still slip them from them, though. No point in taking the risk."

"Speak of the devils," Harry muttered. A pair of identical red haired fourth years were walking toward them.

"Fred," said George. "Do you see that?"

"See what?" said Fred.

"The squeaky dwarves?"

"Oh! I nearly didn't, they're still so small."

"Oh look, Vi," said Harry.

"It's the gingers," said Violet.

"Sorry?" said Fred.

"Could you say that in a lower tone? One that's audible through human ears."

"The fairies can't think of any new insults," said Harry.

"Yeah. All they can do is repeat their old ones, which are getting old, to be honest," said Violet.

"We don't like to waste our effort on you," said George.

"Lame," said Harry.

"Come back to us when you've got something to say worth our time," said Violet.

* * *

"Who can tell me what a banshee is?" asked Professor Dawlish.

Quire a few people raised their hands.

"Mister Crawderth, please enlighten us," said Professor Dawlish.

"It's a lady who's scream is deadly," said Crawderth.

"Not a lady. It's a dark creature that resembles a woman who's, as you said, scream is fatal to anyone who here's it. Similar to a fully grown mandrake. Who can tell me what is most effective against one?"

This time only Harry's hand went into the air.

"Mister Potter."

"A laughing potion, sir."

"Correct. This is why banshees are particularly troublesome to deal with. It's difficult to get near enough to one to give it the potion, but not impossible. Open your books to page twenty-nine. Read."

* * *

"This year we will begin more advanced animal transfiguration," said Professor McGonagall. "Thus far all we've focused on are mice. This year we'll be advancing to much larger creatures. But for today, we'll be turning beetles into buttons."

She demonstrated the spell multiple times before setting the students to practice on their own. Most of the class succeeded into turning their beetles into buttons.

* * *

After Transfiguration on Wednesday, Harry and Violet walked down the grounds to the greenhouses for Herbology along with their other Slytherins.

"Good evening, class. Today we'll be going into Greenhouse Three," said Professor Sprout.

The class murmured in excitement. They'd only been into Greenhouse One so far.

Professor Sprout opened the third greenhouse and the students flocked in.

"Be careful where you stand. Some of these plants are hostile," she said. When everyone was in the greenhouse, she pulled out a box filled with earmuffs. "You'll be needing this for today. Everyone take a pair, but don't put them on yet."

Everyone did as instructed.

"Alright. Over here I've got a couple of planters with mandrakes. Who can tell me what a mandrake is?"

A Ravenclaw raised her hand.

"Miss Patil?"

"They're plants used for healing purposes. Their scream is deadly, however."

"Correct. Five points to Ravenclaw. Now these are just seedlings. Their cry is not fatal yet, but they _will_ knock you out for several hours. I'll demonstrate. Everyone put on your earmuffs."

She gripped a stem sticking out of the ground and tugged. Underneath the stem was what looked like a very ugly brown baby. It's mouth was open and clearly bawling, but they heard nothing through their earmuffs. Professor sprout shoved the mandrake into a pot and filled it with dirt.

She took off her earmuffs and the students followed her lead.

"Just like that. There are pots over there. Get to work. Put on your earmuffs."

Professor Sprout made it look easy. It was not, however. The students had a very difficult time trying to get their mandrakes into the pots as they kicked and flailed about with surprising strength. The students were struggling just to hold onto it.

By the end of class, most people only managed to repot one or two mandrakes.

* * *

When the twins got back to the common room later that day, Violet headed up to her dormitory earlier than she usually did. Unbeknownst to Harry, she was not intending to sleep just yet.

She waited by the window while flicking through her copy of _The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 2_ until she found the spell she'd been looking for.

She pointed her wand at her mattress and waved her wand before returning to the window to watch the sun set on the horizon.

Violet reached into her pocket and pulled out a green leaf that she'd been careful no one saw her take. She set it underneath her tongue and watched as the tip of the sun disappeared beyond the horizon.

She hastily placed the tip of her wand over her heart and whispered aloud, " _Amato Animo Animato Animagus._ "

She performed a spell to seal her tongue firmly over the mandrake leaf and went to bed.

* * *

Violet awoke with a start and hastened to grab her wand. She unsealed her tongue and got dressed quickly. She darted out of the Slytherin dormitory and made her way to a window she'd previously memorized the location of. She looked out and saw orange appearing just over the mountains surrounding the castle.

She waited until the top of the sun appeared above it and placed the tip of her wand over her heart and again whispered, " _Amato Animo Animato Animagus._ "

She then retreated to her dormitory, sealed her tongue again, and went back to bed.

This was now a ritual she'd have to do every day for at least a month.

* * *

A/N: Violet's dream is _not_ mine. It is a plot reference to _Destiny R_ _eversed_ , a fanfiction by chattypandagurl. Great story, I'd recommend you read it. I may have said it before, but I did get inspiration from that story while writing this one.


	10. Burst

A/N: Yes, I know. This is a really short chapter, but they're getting pretty difficult to write. I have a lot of plot points planned out, but don't have a clear idea as to what to do with the line between the points. If you want me to write these chapters as quickly as possible, I NEED your plot ideas.

Thanks to Zedd00, AlphaBravo123, WandWrk, inteleti, and twilliams1797 for reviewing. They really do help.

* * *

A week after term started, Slytherin tryouts were held and they ended up with the same exact team they had last year. The team were now holding frequent practices.

"Down!" said Young.

"Fifty!" said the team.

"Up! Take a break. We're in the air in five minutes."

The first match of the year was Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw, so Slytherin didn't have to pay for a while, but Young still trained them as if there were a match every other day.

"We've still got two years left with him," muttered Violet.

"Who do you think will have as captain next?" asked Harry.

"John?"

"What if it were between you and me? Who would get it?"

"You, most likely."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well—"

Violet was interrupted by Young.

"In the air! Jakobsynn, get the balls."

* * *

Harry split off from his sister before lunch to use the restroom. When he left, he saw Hermione Granger walking by.

"Hermione!" he called out. He couldn't figure out why he did it.

She turned around and looked at him.

"Oh, hi," she said.

"Hey. Er—" Harry hesitated, trying to figure out what to say. "H— how's life?" he said finally. _How's life? Seriously? Just_ _fucking ask her out, Potter!_ Harry thought to himself.

"What?"

"Everything— good with you?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Well, that's good." They both stood there in an awkward silence for several seconds. "Seeya then," Harry added finally and walked quickly away, swearing at himself.

Hermione stood there puzzled for a couple of moments before continuing on her own way.

* * *

"Speed is important!" yelled Young. "You're going to do as many pushups as you can in twenty seconds, then you're going to quickly get on your brooms and do as many laps as you can in three minutes! On my whistle!"

He blew his whistle and then entire team did as instructed. Twenty seconds later, he blew his whistle again and they quickly started zooming around the Quidditch pitch.

After three minutes, they landed and Young looked more pleased than he'd ever been.

"Damn," was all he could say.

* * *

"I'm surprised," said Violet as they walked back from the Quidditch pitch with the rest of the school.

"I know. What happened?" Harry asked.

"Three hundred to ten. I've never seen Ravenclaw perform so poorly, and against Hufflepuff, no less."

"Maybe it was a fluke."

"That'd be good for us. If Ravenclaw pick up the pace, they'll be three hundred points behind us at the end of the season. If Gryffindor is still as bad as it was last year, they may as well give us the cup now."

* * *

Violet took the Marauder's map and tapped it with her wand. " _I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,_ " she said. She scanned the map for a spot that no one else would be able to and set off when she spotted the perfect location.

Violet walked down the corridor and turned to see a statue of a one-eyed witch. " _Dissendium,_ " she said while waving her wand at it. The witch's hump opened up and revealed a passage that Violet entered.

Once she found a spot decent enough, she pulled her cauldron out of her bag and set to brewing a potion.

Finally, she reached her hand into her mouth and removed the mandrake leaf, tore it into four even pieces, and dropped it in.

A couple of hours passed until she finally filled a vial with the potion, cleaned the cauldron, stuffed it in her bag, and set back to the Slytherin dormitory.

On her way, she stopped by a window that she now visited quite frequently and saw orange just over the horizon. While taking occasional glances at her map, she watched and waiting for the sun to appear.

When it finally did, she put the tip of her wand over her heart and said, " _Amato Animo Animato Animagus._ "

* * *

Harry couldn't get a straight answer from his sister, but for some reason she deviated them from their normal seats in class to always be near one next to a window. In classrooms where there were no windows, she asked the teacher to let her use the restroom quite often.

It was a while before Harry picked up on that pattern, but he still had no idea what the point of it was.

"Drink a lot?" Harry asked sarcastically when this happened one day.

"Sure," Violet said.

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to our second match of the year. Hufflepuff versus Slytherin!" Lee Jordan's voice boomed over the crowd, who was cheering loudly.

"The Slytherin team captain, Young who is one of the teams beaters, leads his team onto the pitch. His other beater, Peregrine Derrick following closely behind him. And their keeper, Julia Anderks, as well as the three chasers, Adrian Pucey, John Jakobsynn, and Violet Potter." The applause grew temporarily louder at the last name.

"Finally, the Slytherin chaser, Harry Potter!" The applause again grew temporarily louder.

"And the Hufflepuff team captain is Gilbert Rickson who is the team's first chaser. The other chasers are Heidi Macavoy and Jason Kervin. Their keeper is Herbert fleet, and their two beaters are Anthony Rickett and Maxine O'Flaherty. Finally, their seeker is Cedric Diggory."

"Captains, shake hands," said Madam Hooch. After they did, she blew her whistle and the fourteen players shot into the air.

"Ten-zero, Slytherin!"

"Twenty-zero, Slytherin!"

"Thirty-zero, Slytherin!"

"Thirty-ten, Slytherin!"

"Fifty-twenty, Slytherin!"

"Ninety-twenty, Slytherin!"

"Oh, Potter's seen the snitch!" Harry was zooming toward the ground at high speed until he pulled up, an inch away from the ground.

"OUCH!" Cedric lay in a crumpled heap on the ground.

"I can't believe you fell for that again," Harry said to Cedric while laughing when he'd gotten back into the air, fully healed.

"One hundred-twenty, Slytherin!"

"Oh, has Potter actually seen the snitch this time? He has! Two fifty-thirty! Slytherin wins!"

* * *

After the match, Harry hang out in the boy's locker room a while after he'd finished changing. He'd pulled out the snitch he'd been given by Young after the first team tryouts. He liked letting it go, farther and farther away before catching it again.

Harry left the locker room and headed back to the Slytherin dormitories after about half an hour and was surprised to bump into Hermione Granger.

They stared at each other for a few seconds before she finally said, "That was rather mean of you."

"What was?" Harry said, baffled.

"That Wonky Faint thing."

"Wronski Feint."

"Whatever. It's mean."

"How so?"

"The other seeker could have gotten really hurt, and hitting the ground at that speed looks really painful."

"So?"

" _So?_ Don't you care about when you're hurting other people?"

Harry let that sink in for a moment before saying, "It's just a game!"

"An already dangerous one without you pulling that dangerous maneuver!"

"Who are you to judge?"

"I—"

"Why are you so offended?"

"I'm—"

"Do you have a crush on Diggory?"

"No! I—"

"So what is it?"

"It's really selfish of you to put someone else through that much pain just for a stupid game!"

"Oh, is it some stupid game now? If it's so stupid, then why did you come watch it?"

"Everyone watches it!"

"Oh, I see. You're just someone who'll jump on the bandwagon even if you don't actually enjoy it."

"Don't you—"

"Don't what?"

"I—"

" _Don't what?_ "

"Will you—?" Hermione was interrupted by a kiss that was planted firmly on her lips by Harry. She just stood there, motionless with shock for a few seconds before wrapping her arms around his neck and returning the kiss.

When he finally pulled away, Hermione felt a mixture of happiness from the kiss and sadness that it was over.

"I— um," she stuttered.

"If you don't want me to do the Wronski Feint, I won't," Harry said.

"Okay," she said dreamily while staring through his glasses into those magnificent green eyes.

* * *

The next day, Harry woke to his sister on the edge of his bed.

"Where did you get off to last night? You completely missed the party." Violet said.

Harry put on his glasses groggily and started to piece together the events of the previous night. When he'd fully remembered, a grin spread across his face.

"What?" asked Violet.

Harry thought it best not to tell her anything until he knew for sure what there was between him and Hermione.

"Nothing," he said finally. "Just glad we beat Hufflepuff yesterday."

While they walked down to the Great Hall, Harry caught sight of Hermione and doubled back as if to head to the bathroom.

"You go on ahead," said Harry. Violet did as he asked and continued toward the Great Hall.

When she was out of earshot, Harry called out to Hermione.

* * *

A few days later, Violet woke up and headed to her usual window outside the dormitory to watch the sunrise and perform the spell. While she was there, she noticed a large black cloud headed their way at a fast rate.

She quickly made her way downstairs and out the front doors to watch it loom ever closer. She hid in a spot that students hardly ever visited, but took frequent looks at the Marauder's Map just in case.

She waited there for at least an hour until she finally felt rain drops hitting her. She took out her wand and a vial she'd now carried with her everywhere.

She kept her eyes peeled and her ears open for another thirty minutes while the rain poured harder and harder.

When she saw a flash of light in the distance and a roaring clap of thunder seconds later, she quickly put the tip of her wand over her heart and said, " _Amato Animo Animato Animagus!_ " As soon as she'd done that, she popped the cork out of the vial and downed the potion.

* * *

"Why are you so happy all of a sudden?" Violet asked at breakfast one morning.

"I think— well. I— _think—_ I'm dating Hermione Granger," Harry whispered.

"Wait, what?"

"Did I stutter?"

"A little bit, yeah."

" _I think I'm dating Hermione,_ " Harry hissed. "Happy?"

"How can you _think_ you're dating her?"

"I don't really know _what_ we are, at the moment. It's not really—" he stopped abruptly and got up. "I'll catch up with you later, okay?"

"Alright," Violet said.

It didn't take long from that point for the entire school to learn of Harry and Hermione's new relationship.

A month had passed and "that geeky Granger girl" turned into a person to be both envied and admired by many.

* * *

"POTTER!" yelled Young shortly after the start of Quidditch practice one afternoon. "If you're late one more bloody time—"

"What'll you do? Lose the best seeker you've ever had?" Harry retorted.

"Get down and give me fifty pushups while the rest of the team continues to impatiently wait for you to finish. From now on, every time you're late, we'll add fifty pushups. Got it?" Harry obeyed reluctantly.

* * *

"I haven't been spending too much time with Violet recently," said Harry.

"Oh," said Hermione disappointedly. "Well go ahead, then."

"No. You're coming with me."

"I can go to the library, catch up on some homework."

"You don't have any homework to catch up on. Otherwise I'd be wondering where the hell Hermione is and who you are."

"Well I could just do some light reading."

"Come on. You two have hardly said a word to each other. I want you two to be friends."

"It's fine, really."

"Do you not like Violet?"

"Er—"

"What is it you don't like about her?"

"I think she's fine," she said while looking at her feet.

"Hermione, you're a horrible liar."

"I don't know. I just don't like her, okay?"

"You're jealous of her, aren't you?"

"Jealous of what?" she said angrily.

"You can't stand the fact that there's someone better than you at a subject."

"That's not true!"

"You're just reading a book by it's cover, which sounds quite odd considering who I'm talking to."

"Potter—!" she was interrupted by Harry planting a kiss on her. "Why do you always do that?" Hermione asked, no longer with that venomous anger in her voice.

"It's the only way to shut you up," said Harry with a smirk. "And you look cute when you're mad."

"Fine. I'll give it a try."

Although Hermione would never admit it, Harry was right in every aspect. She had been jealous of Violet for more reasons than just her aptitude for potions. And for the only time in her life, she _had_ read a book by it's cover.

Slowly but surely, Hermione got more and more friendly to Violet.

* * *

"Dawlish drives me mad some—" Harry was saying before stopping abruptly.

"What?" asked Hermione.

"You go on ahead, I think I might be sick," Harry lied. Before giving her a chance to object, he ran off down the hallway.

After a couple of minutes, he backed a small creature into a dead end. He pointed his wand at it and eyed it closely. It was a niffler with a crimson tinge on the fur on top of its head.

" _Violet?_ " Harry said incredulously.

After the niffler scrambled around for a little while, trying to find a way to escape, it finally admitted defeat. With a blink of the eye, the niffler was gone and Violet took its place.

"Oh, hey Harry!" Violet said casually. "Funny bumping into you here."

"Wha— you— seriously?" Harry stuttered, finally lowering his wand.

"Well, I'm just going to head off then, Homework to do, you know?"

"Vi!"

"Yes?"

"When did you become an _animagus?_ " He whispered the last word.

"Are you angry?"

"Of course I'm no! I'm just hurt that you didn't tell me."

"Well you were pretty adamant about not doing it, I figured you'd try and talk me out of it."

"I never told you not to. I just expressed why _I_ didn't want to. I'm still hurt you didn't tell me."

"Well you hid your relationship with Hermione from for who knows how long."

"I wasn't sure what our relationship was then."

"What the hell do you call sneaking of to snog someone every day if not a relationship?"

"A fling!"

Violet rolled her eyes. "Please. You'd been waiting to date Hermione for ages. There's no way you'd just get into a 'fling' with her."

"Can we not change the subject? I thought we were talking about you being an _animagus_." He whispered the last word again.

"Alright. If that's what you want to talk about then fine."

"Cool. So are you going to register?"

Violet snorted. "Don't you realize how much trouble I'd get in? We need to be seventeen to become animagi."

"You'd get in a lot more trouble for being caught as an unregistered animagus than becoming one underage."

"Dad and Padfoot never got caught. They never abused it."

"And you're telling me _you_ won't abuse it?"

"That is a very good question. I'll let you know when I have the answer," she said with a wicked smile.

"Well I'm happy with a 'yes.' Spy on Fred and George, find out what they're planning for us."

"Will do."

"Wait," said Harry, apparently realizing something. "Why were you over there?"

"Over where?"

"In the corridor where Hermione and I were walking just now. Why were you there?"

"Just getting from A to B, you know?"

"Why were you in animagus form, then?"

"I didn't want to interrupt your conversation."

"Uh-huh. And I have a pet Dementor named Sunshine," Harry said sarcastically.

"Say what you will, that's how it was. You two are cute together."

Still not convinced, Harry kept trying to get the truth out of her but she wasn't having it so he eventually gave up and the twins headed back to the Slytherin dormitories.

* * *

Harry dreamt where he was in total darkness but could hear the sound of his mother's voice, making inaudible, terrified pleads to an unknown man.

Harry awoke and lay in bed, thinking about the unusual nightmare for several minutes before pushing the thought out of his head and getting dressed.

He made his way down to the Great Hall by himself and met up with Hermione.

He gave her a quick peck on the lips and said, "So are we meeting up tonight?"

"How much homework do you have?" she responded.

"You can help me with my homework."

"That's cheating."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Come on. We can just do our homework in close vicinity, and you can look over my work and tell me what I did wrong."

"Fine, you got me."

"Great. Quidditch practice ends at half past six."

"Hey, Vi," Hermione said while looking over Harry's shoulder.

"Hey, Hermione," Violet responded.

Harry gave Hermione another quick peck. "Meet up with you in Potions," he said and walked toward the Slytherin table with his twin.

* * *

"DOWN!" yelled Young.

"Three hundred-forty nine," said Harry while doing a pushup.

"DOWN!"

"Three hundred-fifty."

"Get up. Remember, it's four hundred next time you're late.

Harry got up and joined the rest of the team.

"Why were you late?" Violet whispered to him.

"I ran into Hermione on my way here. Got caught up. And why do you look so surprised?"

"You're right. Should be used to it by now."

"Up in the air!"

At six-forty, the team soared to the ground and walked toward the locker rooms.

"Remember. Our match against Gryffindor is on the twenty-third of May."

Harry got changed as quickly as he could and ran to the Entrance hall, which he found empty. He waited there for only a minute when Hermione showed up.

"Sorry I kept you waiting fifteen minutes. I got caught up," she said.

"I forgive you," said Harry with slight sarcastic tone that Hermione didn't pick up on and grasped her hand in his.

They walked up several flights of stairs and through many secret corridors until they ended up in an unused classroom and sat down at a table.

"So Violet told me you found out she's an animagus," said Hermione after a while of writing filled with occasional conversations.

Harry looked up at his girlfriend in surprise. "What? When did she tell you that?"

"Just the other day. I forgot to mention it until now."

"How can you simply forget about something as big as my sister being an animagus?"

"Oh, I knew about that for ages. She only just told me that _you_ found out."

" _What?_ She told you before she told me?"

"Yep. Do you know which of Jilton's laws on animal transfiguration states that you can't transfigure a mundane object into a magical creature?"

"You already know it's the third one. Don't change the subject."

"I was just quizzing you."

"Sure. Why did you never tell me?"

"She asked me to keep a secret, so I did. You can understand that."

"How would I understand that? No one confides their secrets in me."

"You never told _me_ that Vi is an animagus. I realize you were just respecting her privacy."

Harry narrowed his eyes.

* * *

Several hours later that night, Harry said goodnight to Hermione and went to bed. Instead of his usual, vivid dreams, he relived an actual event that night.

Hermione was yelling at him, and Harry retaliated. It went on for a while before she said words that sunk in. The conversation calmed, but quickly got heated again,

He couldn't help but realize how pretty she was, even if she was yelling at him. And he stared at her brown eyes and saw the passion at which she talked.

A cord inside him was severed. He couldn't hold it in any longer. He threw caution to the wind and swooped in and kissed her. It was ten times as amazing as he'd thought it would be.

For a while, they just stood there, locked in each other's embrace until they finally let go.

Harry woke up, but instead of a feeling of unease that usually followed vivid dreams, he felt happy. He'd relived that memory in his head multiple times since getting together with Hermione, but it never felt as real as the dream had.


	11. An Update on This Story

Hey guys. Sorry if you saw this notification and got excited. I'm putting this story on a potentially very long halt. I learned a lot from writing this and When Green Meets Brown. I'm going to use what I learned from the mistakes I made with this story, mainly (I'm quite proud of When Green Meets Brown) and apply them to my own full length novel. I intend to be thorough and think every detail of it through so it's going to be a while before I can even consider finishing this story. I'm sorry to leave this story unfinished. If I do decide to return to it expect it to be completely rewritten. I'm not too happy with how the last chapter turned out and how long the first chapter dragged on for. If you want to continue reading what I wanted this story to be, the first little bit of Destiny Reversed is what inspired me. Give it a full read. You'll enjoy it. chattypandagirl (who wrote Destiny Reversed) is a great author. I recommend any other story she wrote.


End file.
